Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin

(Paperback)

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Description

Bestselling 'immersion' journalist Norah Vincent takes on the mental health system - but when she gets sectioned she discovers that she's not just there to report, she's there to be cured. In Norah Vincent's acclaimed first book she described how she spent eighteen months disguised as a man, an experience that ended on a locked ward in a psychiatric hospital. She left determined to learn more about the world of psychiatry and to examine whether different mental institutions would offer different solutions to their patients, but rather than researching it as a journalist she chose to experience it as a patient. Her journey begins in a huge inner-city hospital, before moving to the calming green carpet of St Lukes where patients are offered a room of their own and a regular jog in the park. From there she moves to Mobius, and a Buddhist-inspired brand of healing where she is forced to swim through West Coast psychobabble to some unexpected conclusions. The result is a fearless and unprecedented view of mental health care - from the inside out.

Reviews

A worthwhile and surprisingly easy read for anyone interested in mental illness... Few journalists now leave their desks in search of a story. Vincent reminds us that there is a (locked, secret) world beyond our office windows and internet search engines * Financial Times *
The writing is tight, funny .... and full of brilliant observations... A fascinating journey. A sex change and now madness - one can't help wondering what she will do next * Sunday Times *
The originality of Voluntary Madness lies in the fact that Vincent is reporting from inside the system at its three cardinal levels: a hard-core public institution, a more congenial private equivalent, and an intensively personalised therapeutic realm. As near as is possible in a single account, this presents the full spectrum of psychiatry in operation -- Blake Morrison * Guardian *
Vincent's a skilled, witty and honest observer, particularly of her fellow patients * The List *
Her account veers sharply into a dissection of her own mental health problems but she asks pertinent questions about whether locking people up really helps * Metro *

Author Bio

Norah Vincent's first book, Self-made Man (2006) was an international media sensation and a New York Times bestseller. Previously, Vincent wrote a nationally syndicated op-ed column for the Los Angeles Times. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, New Republic, Village Voice, and the Washington Post. She lives in New York City.