The 26 women who tell their stories here were incarcerated against their will, often by male family members, for holding views or behaving in ways that deviated from the norms of their day. The authors' accompanying history of both societal and psychiatric standards for women reveals the degree to which the prevailing societal conventions could reinforce the perception that these women were "mad".
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
Twenty-six firsthand accounts that tell the terrifying history of women placed in psychiatric institutions, most often against their will, revealing the realities of their lives in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Chilling Anthology of Voices,
By ilary "ilary" (paris) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Women of the Asylum: Voices from Behind the Walls, 1840-1945 (Paperback)
The accounts treated in this study of interned women are a chilling assortment of shattered lives. Always in the periphery of each story is the question of how mental illness is defined and used by society as an instrument of exclusion or social conditioning. This historical and anecdotal aspect of this book is nonetheless relevant as the horrors and indignities (degradation and abuse, rape, etc.) have continued on into our times, though with albeit increased scrutiny. The 'use' of psychiatry for nontherapeutic ends is as horrifying as it commonplace; a variety of hair-raising studies (such as Dangerous Minds by Robin Munro) have examined its political use. I prefer individual narratives to surveys of cases--autobiographies or diaries-- in the unusual situation in which the interned woman was sufficiently lucid to be able to recount her experience. There is admittedly almost always an element of sexual oppression and domination to these stories, as the Institution or its principals proceed to impose their agenda or themselves on the helpless victims. Narratives such as Running with the Devil by Margot Zimmermann or Writing on the Wall by Mary Elene Wood, like Geller's Women of the Asylum, are rife with material for a prurient film.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great work, wish there was more.,
By Heather Rainey "ImaginaryCanary" (San Francisco Bay Area, California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Women of the Asylum: Voices from Behind the Walls, 1840-1945 (Paperback)
I bought this book but haven't finished reading it completely yet. I find the material very interesting and I love that the book also includes the historical background and framework of the excerpts inside. The entries for each woman are rather short, though. I was hoping for longer pieces by the women who were imprisoned. Though I feel that the work is overedited, I have still been enjoying the reading.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A light on the darkness,
By R. Poole-Carter "Women of Magdalene" (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Women of the Asylum: Voices from Behind the Walls, 1840-1945 (Paperback)
In collecting and commenting upon the first-hand accounts of women held in U.S. asylums from 1840 - 1945, Geller and Harris shed light on the changing treatment of women by the medical profession and by society at large. Who decides who is mad? What constitutes madness? This book offers haunting accounts from the inmates and provocative commentary from the editors. I read it for research, and it helped inspire a play and a novel. For anyone interested in issues of mental health and misogyny.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Despite the groundbreaking efforts of a small number of feminists at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, the prevailing image of the mid-nineteenth-century woman was that of the True Woman. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
asylum care, insane hospital, psychiatric establishment Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
True Woman, New Women, New Woman, New York, Madam Pike, Miss Starr, Happy Homemaker, World War, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Firsthand Accounts, Society Lady, Temperance Union, Catherine Beecher, Miss Hart, National American Woman Suffrage Association, United States, Woodland Hall, Alice Bingham Russell, Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard, Foster House, Frances Farmer, Lemira Clarissa Pennell, Mary Brigham, Mary Jane Ward, National Women's Party New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Despite the groundbreaking efforts of a small number of feminists at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, the prevailing image of the mid-nineteenth-century woman was that of the True Woman. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
asylum care, insane hospital, psychiatric establishment Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
True Woman, New Women, New Woman, New York, Madam Pike, Miss Starr, Happy Homemaker, World War, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Firsthand Accounts, Society Lady, Temperance Union, Catherine Beecher, Miss Hart, National American Woman Suffrage Association, United States, Woodland Hall, Alice Bingham Russell, Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard, Foster House, Frances Farmer, Lemira Clarissa Pennell, Mary Brigham, Mary Jane Ward, National Women's Party New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 38
books:
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21
books
cite this book:
See all 21 books citing this book
- The Grounding of Modern Feminism by Professor Nancy F. Cott on 5 pages
- A History of Women in America by Carol Hymowitz on 5 pages
- Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America by Carroll Smith-Rosenberg on 4 pages
- Faces of Feminism by Olive Banks on 4 pages
- Born for Liberty by Sara Evans in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
See all 38 books this book cites
- Moral Problems in American Life: New Perspectives on Cultural History by Karen Halttunen on 5 pages
- Speaking of Sadness: Depression, Disconnection, and the Meanings of Illness by David A. Karp in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Who Qualifies for Rights: Homelessness, Mental Illness, and Civil Commitment by Judith Lynn Failer in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Snake Pits, Talking Cures and Magic Bullets by Deborah Kent in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- 98 Reasons for Being by Clare Dudman in Back Matter
See all 21 books citing this book
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