- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: University of Illinois Press; 1st Illinois Pbk. Ed edition (1 Aug 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0252068882
- ISBN-13: 978-0252068881
- Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 15 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,394,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
"Not since Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has the literature of madness emitted such a powerful anti-institutional cry." -- Washington Post ADVANCE PRAISE "The forced incarceration, the mental anguish, and the sheer humiliation of 'going mad' are made real in Millett's detailed and passionate narrative of her own experiences. This is a brave book. Once again, the pioneer of women's liberation in our century makes us consider the nature of freedom--what it is and who has a right to it." -- Andrea Dworkin, author of Letters from a War Zone "[Millett] takes you inside her mind in a way that no psychiatrist has ever done, and what you see there is not a mad woman, but another person, just like you, only a little bit more talented, and very, very sane (but damned mad). It is a magic book." -- Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of The Assault on Truth "Kate Millett is magnificent: a historical figure in her own lifetime, a truly exciting writer, a chronicler of our times... [Her] critique of institutional psychiatry and our well-meaning collusion with it is devastating and true... Millett's spirit is indomitable, her bravery thrilling, her return long awaited." -- Phyllis Chesler, author of Women and Madness
Product Description
"The Loony-Bin Trip" is the powerful, staggeringly personal story of Kate Millett's struggle to regain control of her life after falling under an ascription of manic depression. Compulsively readable, Millett's journey into 'that other region' traverses a fearful terrain of self-doubt, futility, and alienation. Beginning with the summer at her farm in Poughkeepsie, New York, when she decides to prove her sanity by going off the lithium prescribed to combat depression, Millett courses through a season of doubt about her own sanity and the loyalty of the people around her. Tormented by the fear that her own mind is 'too dangerous' to be left to its own devices, haunted by recollections of two brief, involuntary commitments to mental hospitals - the first by a doctor who mockingly commented, 'Your only mistake was in trusting the people who brought you here' - she becomes increasingly terrified of being 'captured' again. Millett's nightmares come true when she is forcibly confined to a mental hospital while traveling in Ireland. 'I am telling you what happened to me', Kate Millett says, 'in the hope that it may help all those who have been or are about to be in the same boat'. Her story illuminates not only the personal but also the social conditions - the 'general superstition' - of mental illness. A new preface comments on recent movements for patients' rights and notes touchstone books that have begun to tread the still-taboo ground of psychiatric confinement.
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First Sentence
At the farm in Poughkeepsie just before dinner the first evening light is soft and almost violet. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
At the farm in Poughkeepsie just before dinner the first evening light is soft and almost violet. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book will have you feeling what Kate M felt. It will have you 'in' her life so to speak with all her lostness, way out of control desires,bleak never ending despair and enormous fragility which is so apparant through out the book. You will feel her out of control life as her family and lesbian lover takes REPEATED measures to section her in Psychiartric hospitals and the betrayal in one instance of NOT being able to fufill a proffessional academic commitment due toabove actions being taken against her. You will be with her in her empty flat in NY as she struggles to make a living but discovers that work is mighty therapeutic for her. A book that is difficult to read if for some reason you are in this position yourselves but a must for all seeking to know what forced incarceration and medication (which makes her thirsty) and deprivation of Civil Rights and priviliges does to a human being; and help them understand the plight of misdiagnosed persons everywhere.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is a classic. A feminist icon brings her formidable intellect and humanity to the subject of forced psychiatric interventions and systemic abuse. The fact that Kate Millett is a professor, a renowned author and one of the great figures of feminism offered little protection from the messianic forces of psychiatry to whom domination of and cruelty to theri "patients" is an everyday occupation. Kate explains through her own story how conventional psychiatry saw all her acheivements and activities as evidence of a mysterious disease process they have labelled manic depression (now bipolar disorder) and were convinced that she had to be "treated" against her will "for her own good". Kate shows how psychiatric propaganda corrupted her relationships and set her siblings and parents against her in a battle for control of this so-called disease process. Throughout Kate remains herself: rational, erudite, compassionate, and fully human. All psychiatrists should read this book. It should be part of their training. It would lead to a general consciousness-raising within the profession which is long overdue. Who knows, some might turn away from their "profession" altogether and go and do something useful, if less lucrative, with their lives.
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having been diagnosed as Manic Depressive nearly 2 years ago, I was very keen to read as much literature as I could about the subject. I finished Kay Redfield Jamison's 'An Unquiet Mind' and it convinced me of the need to stay on medication. I'm so glad I read it first! This book, interesting though it is about Kate Millet's life, loves etc is basically self-indulgent and doesn't seem to discuss descent into madness at all. Except it is very clear that everyone else sees it but Kate - she talks about other people acting strange towards her while completely oblivious to her own behaviour. While this horrible fact is recognised, it is not explored or understood. The book was compelling reading, but I found huge gaps during the trip to Ireland. While Kate seems sometimes to realise she was psychotic, she then blames it on the medication and dismisses it. The fact that she declines medication now and is feels 'fine' is kind of commendable but very risky. Being someone who doesn't want to feel she needs medication either, I'm afraid to admit I continue to take Lithium for the sake of my family and friends - I recognise how sick someone with manic depression can get (and although I had a great time while hospitalised, I see now how sick I really was and how much it affected everyone I knew). I never want to go through it again. Not for me or any of my loved ones. Take this book with a pinch of salt. Although I respect Kate Millet a lot, I have thought a lot about my views on psychiatric medication - call me a sucker if you wish, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.
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