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Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost And Found In The Loony Bin (2008)

by Norah Vincent(Favorite Author)

3.37 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0670019712 (ISBN13: 9780670019717)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Viking Adult

review 1: I'm almost finished with this book. I find it very entertaining, since I myself have gone through some of the experiences in mental hospitals which were very much like the author's. However, I'm almost done with it, and I'm disappointed in how the book is ending. I like her writing style, but not her smarmy, snarky upper-middle class, know-it-all, new-agey attitude. Clearly she doesn't understand true mental illness and I don't like the way she criticized and judged the institutions and the characters. She clearly has an ax to grind. When you really need the help, mental institutions and medications are sometimes a necessary evil, although I do think that there is quite a bit of over-medication and over-diagnosis going on in the US. This writer, I believe, thinks she's wri... moreting an expose, but it's too subjective. It was okay to read but I wouldn't recommend it.
review 2: At second read-through, I still love this book. The author is open about her condescension and manipulation of the mental health care system, BUT she is willing to throw herself and her own illness at the cracks and fissures for literature's and curiosity's sake. Vincent is annoying and knows she's annoying, and she uses her pages as therapy. Super interesting, and very honest, read from several perspectives. less

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