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Down and Out in America
April 10, 2008
Our April 21 issue will have a q&a with E. Fuller Torrey about his new book, The Insanity Offen (Norton, June).
Torrey, head of the Treatment Advocacy Center for the mentally ill, highlights the ongoing tragedy of the mid-20th-century decision to deinstitutionalize the mentally ill, many of whom now receive no treatment. Some of the most seriously ill pose a risk to themselves and others—as we’ve seen recently in the Virginia Tech shooting and other large-scale acts of violence.
Torrey,
As I was trying to come up with a head for the q&a, I suddenly remembered Susan Sheehan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Is There No Place on Earth for Me?, an account of the life of the pseudonymous Sylvia Frumkin, a woman with schizophrenia. By intimately introducing us to Sylvia and the difficulties she faced in receiving treatment, this piercing book compels us to look at her plight and reminds us of our common humanity.
Originally published in 1982, and, as best I can tell, last reissued in paper by Vintage in 1993, Sheehan’s is a book that deserved a 25th-anniversary edition. Given the unpleasant facts Torrey presents regarding our failure to meet the needs of the severely mentally ill, Sheehan’s book remains as timely as it was 25 years ago.
Have you read Sheehan’s book? How did it affect you?
What’s in my bookbag? Philip Ball’s Universe of Stone (Harper, July)—a “biography” of the breathtaking Gothic cathedral of Chartres. (When I first entered it 30 years ago with a group of college friends, we were all literally stunned into silence—see rose window above.) How can a Francophile resist Ball’s book?
His timing is also exquisite, given the popularity of Ken Follett’s recent World Without End. Ball’s Bright Earth was an NBCC award finalist.
Posted by Sarah Gold on April 10, 2008 | Comments (0)
