Any woman contemplating turning to psychiatry for help with her problems would be best served with a copy of this book rather than an appointment. This is a painfully honest anthology of the experiences of women at the hands of psychiatry. It describes brutal and dehumanizing “treatment” in the name of medical help. The voices of the women who contributed to this book are filled with the pain and anger of abuse from the psychiatric system. Their voices are strong as they now expose the horrors and share their strengths and stories of survival and healing in spite of the harm they experienced.
This book is divided into three sections: 1) When the world can’t face it, we get locked up, 2) It doesn’t have to be forever, and 3) Standing our ground: the political context of “madness.” Each contains works by women whose words have given me validation, knowledge, and power in my struggles to come to terms with the mental health profession. The works of many of my personal heroes are found here.
A psychiatrist at a major teaching hospital was recently shown this book and commented that it chronicles events of the distant past, not the present, and not at her institution. I can only guess that her denial was worth more to her than her integrity, as people are still committed to her facility, shock treatments are not only done there, but promoted as not harmful (and “maintenance” shock therapy is done monthly), and drugs are the norm of treatment rather than therapy. It remains a place much more likely to violate rather than heal. We cannot expect it to change, but we can acknowledge what goes on there. That is what the women of Beyond Bedlam have done, and much more. Please read their book.