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Beyond Bedlam: Contemporary Women Psychiatric Survivors Speak Out Paperback – November 1, 2000

by Jeanine Grobe (Editor)

5 ratings

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Product details

Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Third Side Press (November 1, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1879427222
ISBN-13: 978-1879427228
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
Customer Reviews: 5 customer ratings
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,136,945 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #30507 in Women's Studies (Books)
- #844 in Popular Psychology Mental Illness Books
- #26361 in Gender Studies (Books)

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Poetry Curator

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Excellent book to keep for reference on the history of the Psychiatric Survivor Movement.

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MORE THAN TWO DOZEN FEMALE "PSYCHIATRIC SURVIVORS" TELL THEIR STORIES

Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2013

Format: Paperback

This 1995 book contains personal accounts by more than two dozen women who were inmates at psychiatric institutions, and explain how they were treated (and MIStreated), how they escaped, and their recommendations to change the system.

Editor Jeanine Grobe wrote in the Preface, "This book is a collection of writings by women who have suffered the stigma and treatment of 'mental illness.' ... After years of 'treatment'... I found out that the psychiatric institution was not about healing but about oppression, the oppression of the human spirit. The psychiatric institution taught me to accept being terrorized, tortured, tormented and traumatized because these were 'medicine' and I was 'sick.' The turning point for me came in 1988 when I began to read the works of radical feminist writers. Through their insights, I realized that there was nothing intrinsically wrong with me... What is troubling to those of us who have managed to free ourselves from psychiatric oppression is the awareness that it continues for others." (Pg. viv-viii) She adds, "For those readers who have not had direct experience with the psychiatric system, I hope this book will lead you to begin questioning its practices. For the mental health professionals who are reading this book, I hope you will be moved to stand alongside of us as we struggle to end the oppression." (Pg. x)

One essay says, "The first lesson to the mental patient, repeated in varying forms in every hospital I was ever in was clear: Behave! Conform! Never directly stated, the message was nevertheless all too clear. The lesson of the first 21 years of my life was thus repeated, this time by an institution of force, since I had failed to learn the lesson as taught by more benevolent institutions." (Pg. 60) She adds, "What is now called the psychiatric survivor movement is an effort to bring about change both on the political level, so that we may no longer be locked up and drugged against our will, and on the personal level, so that each of us, when we are suffering, can turn to our peers for comfort." (Pg. 64)

The editor observes, "more often than not, this 'medicine' is a complete atrocity... Is four-point restraint---being tied down at the wrists and ankles---an improvement over being bound with chains? Is the cage inhumane whereas the seclusion room is not? Are the deaths the result from the use of neuroleptic drugs better than the deaths that resulted from bloodletting? Is the terror inspired by the passing of electric current through the brain an improvement over the shock of being submerged in ice water?... For many of us who have been personally subjected to these practices, the realization of society's wholesale acceptance and/or ignorance of them is intolerable. The torture of whose who have been labeled 'mentally ill' is not a thing of the past; it is happening NOW." (Pg. 103-104)

Another essayist says, "To believers, THERAPY means goodness, helpfulness, and expert care. No matter what goes wrong in the chatting-for-hire relationship, the opinions of the faithful do not budge. When one professional damages us, we often seek out another in hopes they'll fix us up and heal our pain from the previous damage. Torture, murder, brain washing, incarceration, rape, battering, and fascism all happen in the name of therapy. These are not merely side effects or the errors of misguided professionals. They are part of the package." (Pg. 169)

This is a vastly disturbing, yet also enormously enlightening collection, that will be of tremendous interest to any such "survivors," as well as anyone in the "Mad Pride" movement, the antipsychiatry movement, etc.

4 people found this helpful

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Amanda Baggs

Amazing overview of the experiences of women psychiatric survivors.

Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2007

Format: Paperback

This book really helped me when I was struggling to figure out what psychiatric institutionalization had done to me, and how to adjust to the outside world afterwards. It put my experiences into a broader perspective so that I understood that even experiences I had previously thought private were commonplace in the psychiatric system. The writing ranges from poetry to prose, from first-person accounts of the psychiatric system to analyses of how the system itself operates in a broader sense, and everything in between. There is an interesting account of how the ideas, language, and power structures of psychotherapy invaded and weakened the women's liberation movement, alongside poetry that starkly illuminates the experiences of people who still remain, forgotten, possibly by now dead, in the system. This book covers a lot of ground and does it well.

13 people found this helpful

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Rae E Unzicker

Well, I'm one of the authors, but....

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 1999

Format: Paperback

Beyond Bedlam is a compilation of essays by women who have been in the psychiatric system, and who have been both traumatized and politicized by our experiences. "Mental health" today means massive consumer advertising for drugs....uh, medications. (How many of your friends are on Prozac or one of its sister drugs? Did you now that the use of shock "treatment" has increased dramatically over the past ten years, and is now geared to pregnant and older women?) While the book is no means comprehensive, it will give you a sampling of experiences, perspectives, poetry, and just good writing by women who have survived not only what got us into the "system" in the first place, but also the "help" we received there. There are literally millions of women in America who have at least encountered psychiatry first hand. If you're one of them--and you likely will be at some point in your life--read this book for a different point of view, rather than the drug-company, psychiatric propaganda that's permeated our "Prozac Nation."

27 people found this helpful

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Tych Sel

Not really my thing

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2001

Format: Paperback

Interesting, but just something I had to read for a class. Some of the recollections are superb, while other went straight over my head.

One person found this helpful

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