A review by lanagailani
Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin by Norah Vincent
2.0
I had read one of Norah Vincent's other books but completely forgot about it, so when I saw this for $5 at the bookstore, I remembered the author and took a chance. Norah (who has a history of depression) commits herself to three different inpatient programs to see how they handle mental illness, as well as how she handles committed care. Unless you have no knowledge of mental illness or the institutions charged with managing the committed, her revelations are not groundbreaking. This is not an expose, nor is it a cry for reform. Though she does discuss the many problems these programs face, she also acknowledges that there are no easy solutions, especially when dealing with people who lack either a will to change, or an external support network. The solutions she finds for herself made sense to me as someone with experience of depression, and here also there is nothing groundbreaking- the way out is through, and taking care of oneself is a lot of daily, rigorous work. Her experience matches Charles Duhigg's book The Power of Habit- changing cycles of thoughts and behaviors that cause harm or worsen feelings is a lot like breaking bad habits and forming new ones. These things sound easy or simplistic in theory, though in practice the practice is much harder, and Vincent does not gloss over the ugly parts.
I suppose this read was useful in reaffirming what I already knew, and in that sense the book served as a reminder to keep up my own psychological maintenance, but it wasn't anything more than that.
Looking up her other book- Self-Made Man- I remember that I've actually read it, and the premise was much more interesting than the conclusions she was able to draw. With this book, I feel the same way. I understand that it's extremely hard to objectively view the world around you- let alone write about it, or take proper notes- when you're in the throes of depression, so perhaps that had an impact on what she was able to achieve. Hoever, if that's the case then perhaps writing a book about this experience was not the thing to do. A much shorter piece could have accomplished the same ends as this did without revealing so clearly the weaknesses.
I suppose this read was useful in reaffirming what I already knew, and in that sense the book served as a reminder to keep up my own psychological maintenance, but it wasn't anything more than that.
Looking up her other book- Self-Made Man- I remember that I've actually read it, and the premise was much more interesting than the conclusions she was able to draw. With this book, I feel the same way. I understand that it's extremely hard to objectively view the world around you- let alone write about it, or take proper notes- when you're in the throes of depression, so perhaps that had an impact on what she was able to achieve. Hoever, if that's the case then perhaps writing a book about this experience was not the thing to do. A much shorter piece could have accomplished the same ends as this did without revealing so clearly the weaknesses.