The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic - Darby Penny & Peter Stastny
The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic - Darby Penny & Peter Stastny
Non-Fiction
Pages: 208
When Willard State Hospital closed in 1995 thousands of cases, boxes and trunks belonging to many of its residents over its 125 year history were found abandoned in an upstairs attic-room. A selection of particular interest were chosen, ranging from the late 19th century up to almost the present day, and the authors spent almost a decade tracing the lives of these patients, their childhood and upbringings, what led to them being institutionalised at Willard, their treatment and experiences at Willard, and their eventual deaths.
The authors seem to have a certain anti-psychiatric bias, unfair or not is hard to judge on this scant evidence. Reading this book you would think almost all of these patients were unfairly institutionalised and held against their wills the rest of their lives. Some certainly developed full-blown mental illness, and you can't help but feel, from this book at least, that was more the result of years of incarceration and ineffective treatment than any incipient tendencies they may have displayed upon institutionalisation. But I'm sure this is only half the story.
Most of the blurbs and reviews of this book describe it as poignant, moving or sad, and it is all those things, but I couldn't help feeling that it was a missed opportunity. Few of the lives were really explored in any great depth and I never felt that I was reading anything more than a few potted biographies. There was little analysis of the efficacy of the treatments received, no real opportunity to hear the patients' own voices, few interviews of people who worked or lived at Willard during its operation. I felt on finishing this book that I knew little more about the history of Willard, American psychiatric treatment or the patients in question than when I picked it up.
Non-Fiction
Pages: 208
When Willard State Hospital closed in 1995 thousands of cases, boxes and trunks belonging to many of its residents over its 125 year history were found abandoned in an upstairs attic-room. A selection of particular interest were chosen, ranging from the late 19th century up to almost the present day, and the authors spent almost a decade tracing the lives of these patients, their childhood and upbringings, what led to them being institutionalised at Willard, their treatment and experiences at Willard, and their eventual deaths.
The authors seem to have a certain anti-psychiatric bias, unfair or not is hard to judge on this scant evidence. Reading this book you would think almost all of these patients were unfairly institutionalised and held against their wills the rest of their lives. Some certainly developed full-blown mental illness, and you can't help but feel, from this book at least, that was more the result of years of incarceration and ineffective treatment than any incipient tendencies they may have displayed upon institutionalisation. But I'm sure this is only half the story.
Most of the blurbs and reviews of this book describe it as poignant, moving or sad, and it is all those things, but I couldn't help feeling that it was a missed opportunity. Few of the lives were really explored in any great depth and I never felt that I was reading anything more than a few potted biographies. There was little analysis of the efficacy of the treatments received, no real opportunity to hear the patients' own voices, few interviews of people who worked or lived at Willard during its operation. I felt on finishing this book that I knew little more about the history of Willard, American psychiatric treatment or the patients in question than when I picked it up.