Recommended Readings:
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| Book/Article: "Christmas In Purgatory: A Photographic Essay On Mental Retardation" by Burton Blatt and Fred Kaplan |
A deeply moving photographic essay series. The photos and captions will likely bring you to tears. http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/lib/docs/1782.htm |
| Article: "Ten Days In A Mad-House" (1887) by Nellie Bly |
Amazing! Nellie Bly was a reporter who risked her health and safety by going into Blackwell Island's Lunatic Asylum pretending to be a patient: http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/lib/docs/1123.htm |
| Article: from PBS.org "Nellie's Madhouse Memoir" |
More Nellie Bly: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/world/sfeature/memoir.html |
| Book: "Will There Really Be a Tomorrow" by Frances Farmer |
I cannot say enough about this book. IT IS THE MOST MOVING PERSONAL PATIENT ACCOUNT I HAVE READ TO DATE. Miss Farmer was a famous actress who ended up institutionalized in Washington State. This story is rather graphic at times, but it is so worth the read. |
| Article/Book: "Narratives of Madness, as Told From Within" By GAIL A. HORNSTEIN |
Book that contains hundreds of accounts/narratives of madness written by patients http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i20/20b00701.htm |
| Article: Washington Post "Invisible Lives" by Katherine Boo |
A pulitzer prize winning expose series on years of abuse of developmentally disabled DC citizens: http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2000/public-service/works/boo8.html |
| Article/Book: "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" (1947) by Frank L Wright Jr. |
I was ready to buy the book, but a friend sent me the link to the entire book for free online. I love this book, and quote the author's words heavily in my galleries. This is my #2favorite patient account of life "Inside:" http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/lib/docs/1754.htm |
| Book: "Women of the Asylum: Voices from Behind the Walls" by Jeffrey L. Geller & Maxine Harris |
Excellent book! Author brings together 26 personal accounts of asylum experience by women patients. This includes an incredible chapter taken from one of Frances Farmer's books |
| Article: "Long-Forgotten Reminders of Oregon's Mentally Ill" by SARAH KERSHAW |
Article on patient remains n urns "rediscoveredd" from Oregon. Includes photos of the artistically decorated urns: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/14/national... |
| Article: "Astounding Disclosures! Three Years In A Mad House" by Isaac H. Hunt |
Full Text (for free!) patient account of three years inside Maie Insane Hospital. Includes the patient-author's account of the abuse of patients other than himself., "some of which are tantamount to murder:" http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/lib/docs/736.htm |
| Book/Article: "Modern Persecution, or Insane Asylums Unveiled" (1874) by Elizabeth Packard |
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| Book: "The Invisible Plaugue" by E. Fuller Torrey, M.D. and Judy Miller |
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| Book: "The Lobotomist" by jack El-Hai |
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| Book: "Gracefully Insane" by Alex Beam |
Lots of history and almost "gossip" from the famous Mclean Hospital, which was for the more well-to-do patients.
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| Book: "A History of Psychiatry" by Edward Shorter |
Fantastic descriptions and history, plus a few amazing photos, including some of hydrotherapy and different types of shock treatment.
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| Book: "A Social History of the Asylum" by Thomas G. Ebert |
Includes many charts. Two chapters on early asylum and poor houses. Also includes historic info on Wisconsin's state mental hospital, Outgamie County Asylum for the Insane, and treatment in Milwaukee. |
| Book: "The Age of Madness" by Thomas Szasz |
A collection of articles and stories about institutionalization. I particularly enjoyed Chapter 17, "The Machine in Ward 11," Chapter 13 "The Unicorn in The Garden" and Chapter 10 " Out of Sight, out of Mind"
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| Book: "The Shame of the States" by Albert Deutsch |
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| Book: "Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates by Erving Goffman |
This book really goes into the concept of "total institutions" and includes a lot of info on prisons, insane asylums and other forms of total institution. Talks about the way the "institutionees" adjust to their environments. Excellent info about St. Elizabeth's. |
| Article: "Conditions In Mental Hospitals" (1946) by Harmon Wilkinson |
A letter from a staff member of a NE "state school" (school/asylum for the developmentally disabled) which I found quite touching: http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/lib/docs/1719.htm |
| Article: "Popular Feeling Towards Hospitals For The Insane" (1852) by Isaac Ray |
From the article: "On the best methods of saving our Hospitals for the Insane from the odium and scandal to which such Institutions are liable..." http://www.disabilitymuseum.org/lib/docs/1124.htm |