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

by Norah Vincent

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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.

  • ISBN10 0670019712
  • ISBN13 9780670019717
  • Publish Date 30 December 2008
  • Publish Status Remaindered
  • Out of Print 27 August 2015
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint Viking Books
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 287
  • Language English