Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: chi bon, ward mates, Sister Pete, Sweet Girl, Meriwether Hospital (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Vincent's first trip to a mental institution—to which the writing of Self-Made Man drove her—convinced her that further immersion would give her great material for a follow-up. The grand tour consists of voluntary commitments to a hospital mental ward, a small private facility and a boutique facility; but Vincent's efforts to make a big statement about the state of mental health treatment quickly give way to a more personal journey. An attempt to wean herself off Prozac, for example, adds a greater sense of urgency to her second research trip, while the therapists overseeing her final treatment lead her to a major emotional breakthrough. Meanwhile, her fellow patients are easily able to peg her as an emotional parasite, though this rarely stops them from interacting with her—and though their neediness sometimes frustrates her, she is less judgmental of them than of the doctors and nurses. The conclusions Vincent draws from her experiences tend toward the obvious (the better the facilities, the better chance for recovery) and the banal: No one can heal you except you. Though keenly observed, her account never fully transcends its central gimmick. (Jan.)
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From Booklist

Struggling with the “psycho-emotional” conflicts of being a woman living as a man for her last book, Self-Made Man (2006), Vincent checked herself into the psychiatric ward of a hospital. While there, she found inspiration for her next immersion-journalism experience. But this experience went way beyond observation as Vincent actually wondered about the state of her mental health. For a woman with a history of depression, what began as an investigation into psychiatric practices and questionable diagnoses, within the broader context of modern American culture, morphed into a personal exploration of mental stability. In this sometimes harrowing and sometimes humorous account, Vincent recalls her stay at three mental-health facilities: the ward of a big-city public hospital, a rural private psychiatric hospital, and an alternative-treatment program. Vincent chronicles not just the social and economic differences in illnesses and treatments at the facilities but also the madness of bureaucracies that overmedicate and don’t listen enough to what patients have to say. A riveting and enlightening look at mental-health treatment. --Vanessa Bush

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; 1 edition (December 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670019712
• ISBN-13: 978-0670019717
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #33,046 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Frankly Dull, January 7, 2009

By	Sara M "A Reader" (California, USA) - See all my reviews

In Norah Vincent's last book she describes disguising herself and living as a man in every way imaginable for six months. She concludes that book by committing herself to a mental institution. Tough to top? Not for Vincent who turned that experience into the idea for this memoir. She would commit herself into three mental health facilities, and dish out all the dirty details of mental health facilities from the patient perspective.

She easily gets herself committed into her first public health facility and begins to recount colorful stories about her fellow mental patients and scathing criticisms about the hypocrisy of the system. Only Vincent is no stranger to mental demons. She is currently taking Prozac for a history of depression and medication to aide sleep. When she stops taking her medication, she falls into a depression. So before she can commit herself into her next facility, the book then takes a turn. While it still punches at mental health procedure, it mostly becomes the author's personal internal struggle to heal herself. Although the author does make progress and delivers some jewels about modern treatment methods worth considering, the book falls short of the salacious premise originally embarked upon.

80 of 100 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Dismayed, January 4, 2009

By	W.H. - See all my reviews

I was really dismayed by Vincent's depiction of psychiatric drugs in Voluntary Madness, particularly antipsychotic drugs like Seroquel.

As someone whose mental illness (schizoaffective disorder) is and was NOT voluntary, I could tell Vincent that, for me, Seroquel made and continues to make the difference between life and a living death.

The onset of my illness brought loud and threatening hallucinations (voices that threatened to kill me and worse). I was treated with a variety of drugs, the first of which were not very helpful for me.

When my doctor tried giving me Seroquel, however, my life returned to normal as the drug built up in my system. The delusions stopped almost completely, and what voices I heard from then on were and are few and far between. They were also easy to distinguish from real sounds and ceased to be frightening--they became merely annoying and easy to ignore.

While the drug was sedating at first, my body adjusted to it very quickly (it is usually taken at bedtime for this reason). I could also tell Vincent that I certainly DO NOT twitch, drool, or fall asleep during daily activities!

If and when people experience these side effects from drugs, their doctors should withdraw them slowly and gradually while starting them (also slowly and gradually) on new ones. Unless I missed it, Vincent failed to mention that this simple solution to these problems is even possible.

Stopping any psychiatric drug slowly and gradually, under a doctor's supervision, is also an easy way to avoid a painful withdrawal. Vincent demonizes Effexor, for example, as causing withdrawal, but she never mentions that this withdrawal is avoidable.

She also observed that antidepressants and antipsychotics did not seem to work on the real patients on her ward. Well, unlike aspirin, these drugs usually take weeks and even months to build up to a theraputic level in the body. This is something Vincent would have known had she done a bit of research.

Vincent seems intent on making a career of posing as things that she is not. Still, she should have educated herself MUCH better on the subject of severe mental illness and the drugs used to treat it before filling Voluntary Madness with her baseless opinions.

Instead of writing a book about mental illness and its treatments (especially psychopharmacology), Vincent should have read one!

I would like to recommend three books to her or anyone else who wants to read a good first-hand account of mental illness and its treatment:

The Center Cannot Hold by Elyn R. Saks

The Quiet Room by Lori Schiller

An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison

Clarification:

I believe that many psychiatric patients are normal, healthy people who are unhappy for external reasons or going through temporary crises. Vincent, by her own account, seems to fall into this category.

Others, however, have real, biologically based illnesses that (so far) cannot be cured. They can only be treated and the most effective treatment is usually medication, often used with conjunction with therapy. I fall into this category, and I am frustrated that Vincent seems to deny its existence.

Vincent should be glad that she is lucky enough not to need medication. Instead of insisting that since she doesn't need it, no one does, she should have enough humility to refrain from judging what she doesn't understand.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars been done before and quite better, February 20, 2009

By	Jacinda "jacinda" (NYC) - See all my reviews

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Whats the point? & who's it meant for? I'm not sure who would be the target audience for a book that has really no point or purpose. The author appears to be making a half-hearted attempt to get some mileage out of a literary degree by sharing her sophomoric ideas about a subject she has obviously not studied or fully experienced. It's not about her own 'illness' (although that is what she implies in the title) as she doesn't ever really commit to exposing her own struggles but rather gives a preachy and perfunctory speck here and there. At one point she describes her reaction to another person prefacing it with "me being me," and it hit me that I have no idea what that means. She doesn't share enough for the reader to join her in her concept of "me" so it just emphasizes the fact that she has not really developed her 'character' at all for the reader. It's unfortunate too, because there's probably a story here if the author was willing to really commit to telling it instead of hiding under pretense. The writing winds back & forth between vague descriptions of her being a "depressive" and her treatment in the mental health establishments. If you want to write a book exposing the latter- there is alot more to say than is portrayed here! If you're looking for a book that will help you to empathize with those who struggle with mental illness and the institutions/ treatment woes that are a part of that, you're better off elsewhere (Saks or Redfield Jamison). This author appears not to really have much passion and therefore much focus with regard to whatever subject she's calling this & it just comes off as trite as the word "bin" she continually uses. She extracted her 'words to live by' off of the patch on someone's jacket- need I say more? It seems her purpose was simply to write a book. It's practically an insult to people who actually have a diagnosed mental illness, and full of opinions disguised as information. Don't waste your time-