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My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin
Viking Adult
January 2009
On Sale: December 30, 2008
304 pages ISBN: 0670019712 EAN: 9780670019717 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
The journalist who famously lived as a man commits herself—
literally Norah Vincent’s New York Times bestselling book, Self-Made
Man, ended on a harrowing note. Suffering from severe
depression after her eighteen months living disguised as a
man, Vincent felt she was a danger to herself. On the
advice of her psychologist she committed herself to a
mental institution. Out of this raw and overwhelming
experience came the idea for her next book. She decided to
get healthy and to study the effect of treatment on the
depressed and insane “in the bin,” as she calls it. Vincent’s journey takes her from a big city hospital to a
facility in the Midwest and finally to an upscale retreat
down south, as she analyzes the impact of
institutionalization on the unwell, the tyranny of drugs-as-
treatment, and the dysfunctional dynamic between caregivers
and patients. Vincent applies brilliant insight as she
exposes her personal struggle with depression and explores
the range of people, caregivers, and methodologies that
guide these strange, often scary, and bizarre environments.
Eye opening, emotionally wrenching, and at times very
funny, Voluntary Madness is a riveting work that exposes
the state of mental healthcare in America from the inside
out.
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