Malformed


Book Description

Hidden away in a storage closet deep within the bowels of Texas State Mental Hospital languished a forgotten but incredibly rare collection. A unique and exceptional assortment of extremely rare, malformed or damaged human brains preserved in jars of formaldehyde. Decades after they were hidden away, in 2013 photographer Adam Voorhes discovered the brains and became obsessed with documenting them.




Asylums


Book Description

A total institution is defined by Goffman as a place of residence and work where a large number of like-situated, individuals, cut off from the wider society for an appreciable period of time, together lead an enclosed, formally administered round of life. Prisons serve as a clear example, providing we appreciate that what is prison-like about prisons is found in institutions whose members have broken no laws. This volume deals with total institutions in general and, mental hospitals, in particular. The main focus is, on the world of the inmate, not the world of the staff. A chief concern is to develop a sociological version of the structure of the self. Each of the essays in this book were intended to focus on the same issue--the inmate's situation in an institutional context. Each chapter approaches the central issue from a different vantage point, each introduction drawing upon a different source in sociology and having little direct relation to the other chapters. This method of presenting material may be irksome, but it allows the reader to pursue the main theme of each paper analytically and comparatively past the point that would be allowable in chapters of an integrated book. If sociological concepts are to be treated with affection, each must be traced back to where it best applies, followed from there wherever it seems to lead, and pressed to disclose the rest of its family.




Gracefully Insane


Book Description

Its landscaped ground, chosen by Frederick Law Olmsted and dotted with Tudor mansions, could belong to a New England prep school. There are no fences, no guards, no locked gates. But McLean Hospital is a mental institution-one of the most famous, most elite, and once most luxurious in America. McLean "alumni" include Olmsted himself, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, James Taylor and Ray Charles, as well as (more secretly) other notables from among the rich and famous. In its "golden age," McLean provided as genteel an environment for the treatment of mental illness as one could imagine. But the golden age is over, and a downsized, downscale McLean-despite its affiliation with Harvard University-is struggling to stay afloat. Gracefully Insane, by Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam, is a fascinating and emotional biography of McLean Hospital from its founding in 1817 through today. It is filled with stories about patients and doctors: the Ralph Waldo Emerson prot'g' whose brilliance disappeared along with his madness; Anne Sexton's poetry seminar, and many more. The story of McLean is also the story of the hopes and failures of psychology and psychotherapy; of the evolution of attitudes about mental illness, of approaches to treatment, and of the economic pressures that are making McLean-and other institutions like it-relics of a bygone age. This is a compelling and often oddly poignant reading for fans of books like Plath's The Bell Jar and Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted (both inspired by their author's stays at McLean) and for anyone interested in the history of medicine or psychotherapy, or the social history of New England.




The Unnoticed Majority in Psychiatric Inpatient Care


Book Description

This book is a research mono graph reporting empirical results, but we have tried to place the data in a very broad national perspective. Our intent is a volume on mental health policy in the United States, most notably our de facto policies, as indicated by empirical data. The book gives a broad perspective of mental disorders and mental disorder treatment in general hospitals in the United States. The audi ence that we ho pe to reach is those interested in mental health policy, planning, and treatment alternatives. The issues raised in this book are germane to anyone who is concerned with the problems that beset those see king treatment for mental or substance abuse disorders. We address the foUowing types of issues: (1) the history of health policy in the United States; (2) the history of our mental health policy as a eomponent of our health poliey; (3) the effeets of ehanges in payment policies; (4) mental disorders among special populations (children, the elderly, the disabled); (5) the cost of treatment; (6) changes in labeling of diagnosis; (7) the effectiveness of treatment; and (8) evolving public policy issues.




The Essential Guide To Mental Health


Book Description

Presents a psychiatric reference book that includes a directory of psychiatric drugs detailing which ones work and which ones do not, and offers articles on psychiatric illnesses such as bulimia, ocd, and depression.




Mental Disorder and Crime


Book Description

Contributors to this volume present and discuss new data which suggest that major mental disorder substantially increases the risk of violent crime. These findings come at a crucial time, since those who suffer from mental disorders are increasingly living in the community, rather than in institutions. The book describes the magnitude and complexity of the problem and offers hope that humane, effective intervention can prevent violent crime being committed by the seriously mentally disordered.




Managing Madness


Book Description

The Saskatchewan Mental Hospital at Weyburn has played a significant role in the history of psychiatric services, mental health research, and providing care in the community. Its history provides a window to the changing nature of mental health services over the 20th century. Built in 1921, Saskatchewan Mental Hospital was considered the last asylum in North America and the largest facility of its kind in the British Commonwealth. A decade later the Canadian Committee for Mental Hygiene cited it as one of the worst facilities in the country, largely due to extreme overcrowding. In the 1950s the Saskatchewan Mental Hospital again attracted international attention for engaging in controversial therapeutic interventions, including treatments using LSD. In the 1960s, sweeping healthcare reforms took hold in the province and mental health institutions underwent dramatic changes as they began transferring patients into communities. As the patient and staff population shrunk, the once palatial building fell into disrepair, the asylum’s expansive farmland went out of cultivation, and mental health services folded into a complicated web of social and correctional services. Erika Dyck’s Managing Madness examines an institution that housed people we struggle to understand, help, or even try to change.




Liaison Psychiatry


Book Description

Liaison psychiatry, that is, psychiatry with patients with organic disorders or physical symptoms in general hospitals, is a field that grew rapidly in the 1980s. Yet there had been no introductory book to the subject which might have served the needs of trainee psychiatrists, medical students, and general physicians and surgeons, as well as nurses and others, whose patients might be involved. This book, originally published in 1987, aimed to fill this gap in the literature. It begins by examining the scope and organisational issues of liaison psychiatry at the time and its role in psychiatric patients with organic disease, psychosomatic disorders, emotional reactions to physical disease, terminal illness, etc. The bulk of the book then reviews liaison in a range of medical specialities. The book should thus have a wide readership.