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.
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:
disabilitymuseum.org/lib/docs/1123.htm |
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
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:
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:"
Disabilitymuseum.org/lib/docs/1754.htm |
Book: "Women of the Asylum: Voices
from Behind the Walls"
by Jeffrey L. Geller & Maxine Harris |
Excellent book! Authors
bring 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 "rediscovered"
from Oregon. Includes photos of the artistically decorated
urns:
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:"
Disabilitymuseum.org/lib/docs/736.htm |
Book/Article: "Modern Persecution,
or Insane Asylums Unveiled" (1874)
by Elizabeth Packard |
Full text for free. Patient account from 1874, includes
photos.
Disabilitymuseum.org/lib/docs/1662.htm |
Book: "The Invisible Plaugue"
by E. Fuller Torrey, M.D. and Judy Miller |
Quality history of psychiatry. Includes many items
that other psychiatry historical chronologies do not
include. |
Book: "The Lobotomist"...............................
by jack El-Hai |
Biography of the "Mad Scientist," Dr.
Walter Freeman who developed a heinlous technique for
frontal lobotomies which involved ice picks through
a patients eyes. |
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. Starts off slow but then really
gets interesting later in the book.
|
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. |
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" |
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:
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..."
Disabilitymuseum.org/lib/docs/1124.htm |
Book: "The Shame of the States"
by Albert Deutsch |
description coming soon. |
