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Book Reviews From The Bookbag (view source)
Revision as of 16:21, 17 January 2010
, 16:21, 17 January 2010no edit summary
'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Norah Vincent
|title=Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin
|rating=3.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=''Voluntary Madness'' is journalist Norah Vincent's account of her visits to three mental health facilities in America. The first is an urban, public hospital that houses mainly homeless, psychotic patients, many of whom are addicted to drugs. In this hospital, the doctors are overworked and jaded and medication is always the answer. Soon, the author finds that her latent depression (which led her to do the book in the first place) is returning. The process of being institutionalised breaks her sense of self-worth down astonishingly fast. Indeed, she suggests that it is the lack of autonomy in institutional life, even for those patients who voluntarily commit themselves, that makes it so hard for them to rebuild independent lives when they finally leave the institution.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099513439</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview