Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin

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Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin

3.29 of 5 stars 3.29 · rating details · 1,818 ratings · 303 reviews

The journalist who famously lived as a man commits herself- literally

Norah Vincent's New York Times bestselling book, Self-Made Man, ended on a harrowing note. Suffering from severe depression after her eighteen months living disguised as a man, Vincent felt she was a danger to herself. On the advice of her psychologist she committed herself to a mental institution. Out of...more

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published December 30th 2008 by Viking Adult (first published January 1st 2008)

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Feb 29, 2012 Brittany B. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1favorites, high-recommend, non-fiction, best-of-the-best_any_genre

I read this right when it was released hardcover- so it was a while ago. Ive been trying to remember the name of this book so I could add it, and it just came back to me. (brilliant that I didn't think to check my actual bookshelf)

I read the reviews others wrote and was very surprised how how low the ratings were. I was fascinated with this memoir, for both personal and objective reasons. The author has a mild to medium level of mental illness throughout her life. When this memoir begins, Norah...more I read this right when it was released hardcover- so it was a while ago. Ive been trying to remember the name of this book so I could add it, and it just came back to me. (brilliant that I didn't think to check my actual bookshelf)

I read the reviews others wrote and was very surprised how how low the ratings were. I was fascinated with this memoir, for both personal and objective reasons. The author has a mild to medium level of mental illness throughout her life. When this memoir begins, Norah Vincent had recently finished her memoir on living life as a man (temporary, not a transsexual). After that book, Ms Vincent became very depressed and decided to get mental health care in a facility. All of this is quickly laid out to explain that the memoir will chronicle her life as she gets mental health treatment and struggles with a life of illness, medications, and hopefully recovery.

It was fascinating, depressing, inspiring and important. She goes through 4 facilities, I believe. One state facility, one high price facility. I don't remember the other two. She chronicles what it's like to be sick and in the various hospitals.

Having experience with loved ones in mental health facilities, I was also experiencing a personal crisis while reading this book. It was incredibly valuable to read Ms. Vincent's experience. She actually was having major depression and a difficult nervous breakdown. I want to point out that I ABSOLUTELY do not believe she faked a single moment, nor did she took advantage of the circumstances for the purpose of sensationalism.

This is a novel that stuck with me. I highly recommend it. This memoir speaks out about the how easily a person can spiral into mental illness and about the nature of state-run vs private health care facilities. I don't feel this author had a political agenda, I'm LOATHE to that type of nonsense. But reality is what it is.

Also, it was fascinating to learn the various ways of treatment. Why do some patients lose themselves to illness, yet others overcome even the darkest abyss? What is it like to stay at a chic "wellness" clinic... And what is it like to get stuck in a state facility.

Again, I read this about 3 years ago so maybe I'd have a different perspective now. I will flip through it again soon and revise this if neseccary. Otherwise, I admit that I still think about things I learned from this memoir.

If you're interested, don't let bad reviews change your mind. For some, this may be incredibly useful. (less)

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Jan 23, 2009 Leigh-ann rated it 1 of 5 stars

Not nearly as interesting as the premise suggests, and probably the only memoir I've ever read where the author exhibits absolutely no sense of humour. The book was as dry as dry can be. I think the book would have been more interesting if it really had been an outsider's account of life in a mental institution, but instead, the book quickly becomes an account of Vincent's own battle with depression. Speaking as someone who's suffered depression for the past decade, I can assure you that it's no...more

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Jul 20, 2009 Lain rated it 3 of 5 stars

To start with, I admire Norah Vincent's willingness to throw herself completely into her research. Following on her year of living as a man, she spends several weeks at three different mental institutions. No denying the fact that she is willing to sacrifice for her work!

Her descriptions of being housed in the giant metropolitan hospital are harrowing, as are the pictures she draws of her fellow mental patients. She is an apt observer and captures the telling detail (a list of pseudonyms a patie...more

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Feb 11, 2009 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is book 2 in the best of contemporary immersion journalism. Vincent's first book was "Self-Made Man", in which she passed as as male for a whole year, through experiences of work, sports, dating, etc. Eye-opening, to say the least. This time around she gave herself the task of infiltrating America's mental health institutions. There is no love lost here for the people who run these systems. So perhaps all of our various and sundry mental health workers SHOULD read this book. She was actuall...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Kelly rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs, depressing, dramatic, inspiration, neurotic, self-help

"You don't see things how they are. You see them as you are."

Crawling out of your skin, hyper-aware of every thought that rides in with the waves and all but screaming out loud for it to stop as you search every available medicine cabinet, internet chat room and available body in the single hope of escaping. Escape from the despair, the anger, the loneliness and the all-consuming fear that seems to pervade this moment.

More and more I'm realizing that everyone has those moments, days, thought pa...more "You don't see things how they are. You see them as you are."

Crawling out of your skin, hyper-aware of every thought that rides in with the waves and all but screaming out loud for it to stop as you search every available medicine cabinet, internet chat room and available body in the single hope of escaping. Escape from the despair, the anger, the loneliness and the all-consuming fear that seems to pervade this moment.

More and more I'm realizing that everyone has those moments, days, thought patterns. All of us, at one point or another in our lives, is Susanna Kaysen or Lisa Rowe; Struggling against yourself, your life and the desire to give up or get on is all you can manage to focus on. If you're lucky the moment passes, the stressor resolves itself, and you move into the next moment unaffected as the other becomes a surface memory. For others, as Ms. Vincent has clearly shown us, it's a battle that must be fought every minute of every day.

Ms. Vincent's Voluntary Madness was very informative and did bring me a deeper understanding of the medical community and mentally ill, as well as shed light on chemical dependency. Unfortunately, while it may have started out as a journalistic approach, it clearly develops into a memoir... and that's where my own issues with the book began to develop. Subjective, overwhelmed with her own manic state, Vincent never really embraces the process and therefore, never truly takes in what the facilities have to offer nor what the synopsis promises. How could she when she went in already against the system, the faculty, and the treatment process. In fact, Vincent keeps her distance rather than participate at the first two institutions and instead condescends almost the entire time. It was only at Mobius, the third facility, that Vincent allowed herself to be open enough to learn about her disease and relate those findings to the reader. A facility, by the way, that matched the idea of what she perceives as being a truly "healing" center.

So, while this was supposed to be an objective collection of information regarding mental illness, it turned into Vincent's own personal platform which she abused with her own personal opinions/rants on the medical community, pharmaceutical companies, corporate America and middle class Americans. Not to mention her insistence that she believes that most mental illnesses, if not all, are self-induced due to weak, lazy minds and a desire for a quick fix....as she pops her Prozac throughout.(less)

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Aug 17, 2009 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars

NON-FICTION. Ballzy immersion journalist tells her tale of how easy it is to check yourself into a 'Loony Bin' in this country. And she asks the question: "Who wouldn't BECOME crazy once in a place like that?" I found it to be a brow-raising account of our country's mental system. Not all of her experiences were negative, and that is slightly encouraging.
I gave it 3 stars because after a while, I got a little tired of the author's egoic love for hearing herself explain things. I'm being nice....more

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Mar 30, 2009 Liz rated it 4 of 5 stars

I like Norah Vincent, but I bet her next book will be "How I Committed Suicide." Because she does stuff that one wouldn't normally do, and it usually ends up coming precariously close to destroying her. In her last book she dresses up like a man and lives in society as that (dating, working, etc), and in this book she commits (committs?) herself to various mental institutions, to see if money/class matter in the quality of care you get. And, it does.

What I like about the author is that she is ve...more

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Jan 31, 2009 Cynthia rated it 3 of 5 stars

This starts with a great premise - after having been admitted to a pscyhiatric ward for depression, the author decides to research three other facilities while "in cognito." One is a public facility in apparently NYC, another a private faciltiy somewhere in Midwest USA and last an alternative treatment facility that is also privately funded.
Where the book loses some of its punch is when the author decides to go off her prescribed Prozac and becomes truly depressed herself. Thus instead of revea...more

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Jan 17, 2009 Hood rated it 5 of 5 stars

http://miamisunpost.com/archives/2009...

Bound Miami SunPost Jan. 1, 2009

Crazy Lady

Norah Vincent Hits the Loony Bins

By John Hood

When former Los Angeles Times columnist Norah Vincent decided to live life as a man for a while, she probably had no idea the experience would produce a bona fide bestseller (Self-Made Man), or that the living would literally drive her nuts. But 18 months later, after a total immersion that included joining an all-male bowling team, hitting the strip clubs and dating oth...more

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May 13, 2013 Leon rated it 4 of 5 stars

The journalist who famously lived as a man commits herself- literallyNorah Vincent's New York Timesbestselling book, Self-Made Man, ended on a harrowing note. Suffering from severe depression after her eighteen months living disguised as a man, Vincent felt she was a danger to herself. On the advice of her psychologist she committed herself to a mental institution. Out of this raw and overwhelming experience came the idea for her next book. She decided to get healthy and to study the effect of t

...more

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Jan 25, 2013 Betsy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

VOLUNTARY MADNESS by Norah Vincent was FASCINATING. I write that in all caps because I mean it in the literal sense of the word, not as a vague compliment. After picking the book up casually, halfway into the first chapter I became absolutely compelled to read it.
While researching another book, Ms. Vincent became depressed and checked herself into a classic mental ward, which scared the bejesus out of her. She swore she'd never do it again. Except she did, because as a spectacle, the mental ward...more VOLUNTARY MADNESS by Norah Vincent was FASCINATING. I write that in all caps because I mean it in the literal sense of the word, not as a vague compliment. After picking the book up casually, halfway into the first chapter I became absolutely compelled to read it.
While researching another book, Ms. Vincent became depressed and checked herself into a classic mental ward, which scared the bejesus out of her. She swore she'd never do it again. Except she did, because as a spectacle, the mental ward was impossible to beat, and as a journalist, she couldn't resist it.
Having had personal experience with mental illness, she decided to "fake" more severe mental illness and spend time in different types of mental institutions, rural, expensive, public, comparing the treatment she receives. Her intent is to write an expose the system, but her results, both journalistic and personal, are much more complex than she- or I- anticipate.
I started reading expecting a voyeuristic, holy-canole, amusing thrill ride, but her experiences were much more enlightening than that. There was plenty of drama and backstage dirt, but her relationships with other patients, staff, and herself end up being much more memorable in the long run. Norah Vincent's writing is smooth and concise. I never once had to re-read a sentence to figure out what she was saying- her words never got in the way of her meaning.
She writes clearly and conversationally about scientific principles and psyciatric medications, without getting bogged down or ruining the flow of her story-telling. She is BRUTALLY honest about her own personal history and her reactions to psychotherapy. She gives so much of herself in this book that I almost want to send her a check and pay for the book twice. (I'm too cheap to actually do it, however!)
It's a weighty subject and she doesn't dodge the tough stuff, but the book isn't a weighty read. It's fun, funny, entertaining, thought-provoking- everything, in short, that I want a book to be. As my ultimate act of reader-judgement, after reading this, I immediately ordered all her other books!
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Jun 21, 2012 lana rated it 2 of 5 stars

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...more 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. (less)

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Jun 02, 2012 David rated it 2 of 5 stars

second book of hers I've read (other one was about going undercover for a year as a man), but this is it. She is better at picking extremely interesting-sounding topics for her "immersion journalism" than at actually making fresh observations about them.

This one is a hybrid -- she pitches it as becoming a patient at 3 very different (one public hospital, one private, and one alternative no-medications outpatient day treatment place) mental health facilities in order to do research on the experie...more

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May 29, 2012 Nicole rated it 1 of 5 stars

This was an incredibly difficult book to read. If I had to narrow down the long list of adjectives for the author that crossed my mind as I read, I would have to put "loathsome", "arrogant", and "unprofessional" at the top of the list. Vincent had zero objectivity and a definite agenda going into this project-- to prove right all her theories about mental illness, the evils of medication, and the incompetence of doctors. These were, of course, theories based on her own bad experience with a ment...more

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Apr 04, 2012 E.D. Martin rated it 1 of 5 stars

Maybe I'm just as biased as the author, one of the "well-loved children of the upper middle class" - I majored in psychology, and I work with predominately indigent populations. So from the very start her disdain for psychological research ("I don't accept the terms by which mental illness is currently defined" - and your background is in what? Just because a layman doesn't understand or believe something *coughevolutioncoughglobalwarmingcough* doesn't mean it's not true) and for people seeking...more

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Nov 11, 2011 Suzanne Auckerman rated it 3 of 5 stars

I did not read her first book--Self Made Man, but it was a bestseller. This one came out in 2008 and I don't remember hearing about it. I picked it from a sale table at Barnes and Noble last year. Norah Vincent struggles with depression from time to time, is opposed to medication and had had a bad experience the one time she committed herself. So she decided to select different types of institutions, one is state run in a large city, with lots of homeless people that have been picked up for dist...more

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Nov 06, 2011 Alexa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

This is one of those books whose medium star rating (I think it's at 3.5 on average) masks a more interesting story: it seems that most people loved or hated it. I loved it, though I can see what people didn't like about it. Vincent bravely tells the truth as she sees it, and much of her perception is harsh and makes her, in some ways, an unlikeable narrator. She rants, then vents, and finally waxes poetic, and there's no doubt that her inner turmoil becomes the focus more and more as the book g...more This is one of those books whose medium star rating (I think it's at 3.5 on average) masks a more interesting story: it seems that most people loved or hated it. I loved it, though I can see what people didn't like about it. Vincent bravely tells the truth as she sees it, and much of her perception is harsh and makes her, in some ways, an unlikeable narrator. She rants, then vents, and finally waxes poetic, and there's no doubt that her inner turmoil becomes the focus more and more as the book goes on.

All that said, this is intentional on her part, and as someone who is just learning how to manage my own depressive tendencies (which I sometimes wonder if we all have), I appreciate being taken on her journey. She speaks as she was feeling right then--so in the beginning, there is a lot of negativity and rage that she probably could have edited out or at least watered down. But it's good that she didn't.

In a lot of ways, the book is like an experimental film documentary: What happens if, in the course of documenting, I become the director and the subject? Can that work? Is there value in it?

A lot of reviewers have mentioned that it's a mash-up, and it is, but, again, intentionally so. As she experienced the first mental hospital, her objective journalist voice became mashed up with her depressed patient voice, which in turn got lost in her own anger. Her final thoughts on the subject don't come until the end of the book, when she looks back on the three hospitals and reflects on the attitudes she initially held. This means you have to be willing to go on the journey with her, and understand that her voice throughout most of the book reflects the thoughts she had at the time, and not necessarily the thoughts she was left with at the end of the book/journey/experiment.

Finally, for anyone who has given a lot of thought to the tricky contradiction of the value of community and the importance of individual will, this is an important read. Do patients need the community, or just themselves? Or both? What is the roll of the public sphere in individual madness? What is the role of government? Of tax money? Should be be libertarians or greens, fiscal liberals or fiscal conservatives?

Big questions, without definitive answers here. But Vincent begins to give us a language with which to articulate the issue and discuss solutions in a new way, with new understandings. Because the individual must make the decision to get better, but the system must be in place to help the individual once he or she makes that decision.(less)

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Sep 23, 2011 Melise Gerber rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: general-non-fiction

It is a really interesting concept for a book, and definitely an interesting view into the experience of inpatient treatment for mental illness. Her writing style is clear and sharp, and it was a quick and enjoyable read. I also appreciated how respectfully she wrote about all of the people that she met in each of these places.

The reason that I give this book only two stars is that I found her tone at the end of the book lapsed into a sort of disdain for her fellow sufferers, and a sort of disgu...more

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Aug 01, 2011 Kurt rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I almost never give up on books without finishing, but after suffering through a little over sixty pages of this garbage, I tossed it aside. The basic idea of the book is intriguing - a journalist checks herself into three psychiatric facilities in an effort to get a close look at mental health treatment in the United States today. I bought my bargain-priced copy of this book because my brother is a psychiatrist, because I am a public defender who has many clients who spend significant periods o...more I almost never give up on books without finishing, but after suffering through a little over sixty pages of this garbage, I tossed it aside. The basic idea of the book is intriguing - a journalist checks herself into three psychiatric facilities in an effort to get a close look at mental health treatment in the United States today. I bought my bargain-priced copy of this book because my brother is a psychiatrist, because I am a public defender who has many clients who spend significant periods of time in hospitals, and because I love investigative journalism works by talented authors like Barbara Ehrenreich, Ted Conover, Piper Kerman, and A.J. Jacobs.

This book, though, is just vile. Vincent starts out with a clear "smarter than the doctors and everyone else" agenda, which is grating to me on a personal level and makes all of her observations suspect from a purely journalistic standpoint. She has valid concerns about whether or not doctors know all of the side effects of the drugs they prescribe, but when she vents in such a snotty way, I have no interest in listening. She also details a history of psychiatric medications and inpatient treatments that make her "ha ha, these stupid doctors don't even know that I'm not crazy" attitude that much more repulsive (and when she rants about the chemical processes used to create a dinner roll provided for patients at a meal, she sounds pretty mentally ill to me - her point is a fair one, that good nutrition could have a valuable impact on a patient's physical and mental health, but when she makes the point in such a shrill and out-of-nowhere way, she loses credibility).

Also, even if I weren't thoroughly repulsed by her character as presented in the first few dozen pages, I would still have abandoned the book because it is written so poorly. Immersive journalism works because a journalist gathers first-hand observations, laying out for the reader a number of facts and conclusions. Then the writer has earned the right to expand his/her analysis to question the systemic implications of these observations. Vincent just throws everything into a jumble. She'll begin to describe, say, an intake interview at a hospital, and she will suddenly veer off into a philosophical discussion of how and why we give doctors power, and what our system is like, then she'll return to the narrative. It is poor writing that would be savagely edited in a college class, and it is insulting to pay money for a book and find such a low level of professionalism.

I respect Vincent's goals, to an extent. She clearly believes that the mental health care system in the United States is broken, and I applaud her efforts to personalize the problem and present it to a wider audience. Her lack of self-awareness, her refusal to set aside her personal agenda, and her failure to abide by a simple "facts first, then discussion of implications" structure, though, make this an unreadable mess, and I wish that I had never wasted time or money on it.(less)

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Apr 13, 2011 Karendenice rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, 2011-52-book-challenge, library-borrowed, non-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 21, 2010 Michela rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book is terrible. I enjoyed The Self Made Man because, though I thought it was an unoriginal premise, it was highly insightful. This piece of garbage lacked everything I liked and had come to hope for from Norah Vincent. Despite immersing herself in "madness" she shows no understanding of mental illness, both of her own and that of others. Her clumsy attempts at probing her own psyche just come off as incredible self absorption, and her comments towards others are so astoundingly superficia...more

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Aug 02, 2010 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: not-finished, 2010, non-fiction

Part of the reason the book gets such a low rating is that I did so much work in mental health during my undergrad. Norah is deceitful and that makes me upset. I don't like to be tricked. While I do think that the workers in some of the hospitals were just lazy, I feel like her book is more a reflection on how our mental health system is underfunded, unappreciated, and misunderstood. This book was written to 'shock and awe', and it meets that goal.

This book breaks my heart and makes me uncomfort...more

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Mar 28, 2010 Courtney rated it 1 of 5 stars

having read her other book and being in the field of mental health, i thought this would be very interesting. unfortunately, the author was under the impression she was objectively evaulating the sytem that treats mental illness but she was actually depressed and dealing with some deep personal issues at the time she tried to do this. it also seems that her background on the topic is woefully uninformed, so instead of being a fascinating new look at the topic, it was just one person's very biase...more

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Jan 18, 2010 Jennifer Campaniolo rated it 3 of 5 stars

You always hear stories of horrific conditions in state mental hospitals (at least in the ones that are left.) I was curious to see if this was still the case in America today. Norah Vincent checks herself into three "loony bins": A city hospital, a rural and private institution, and a more expensive southern center that sounds more like a Buddhist retreat with therapy than a place for the mentally ill. Her findings are actually not that surprising--the city hospital is a nightmarish place with...more

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Sep 27, 2009 Sophia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: medicine, non-fiction, mental-illness, 2009

When self-styled immersion journalist Norah Vincent found herself veering towards a depressive breakdown towards the end of her undercover-as-a-man research for her first book, Self-Made Man, she emerged with the idea for another project. Dealing with depression for many years and having been hospitalized for it, she checked herself into three mental health institutions over a course of a year with the intent to write about it. Voluntary Madness is the result of her efforts. The three facilities...more When self-styled immersion journalist Norah Vincent found herself veering towards a depressive breakdown towards the end of her undercover-as-a-man research for her first book, Self-Made Man, she emerged with the idea for another project. Dealing with depression for many years and having been hospitalized for it, she checked herself into three mental health institutions over a course of a year with the intent to write about it. Voluntary Madness is the result of her efforts. The three facilities ranged from Meriwether, an overburdened urban hospital with mostly an indigent and minority population; St Lukes, a private Catholic clinic in the rural Midwest; to Mobius, an alternative private clinic in California.
Alternatively, they could have been named Worst, Better, and Best. Not surprisingly, the book became easier to read as she progressed through them. Vincent's scathing diatribe in Meriwether can only be matched by her inability to see her bias -- as a more educated, astute, or "with it" patient, she writes as if she has uncovered all is wrong with psychiatry and the "system." However, she merely sees it from the patient side, without being totally able to relate to her wardmates, or understand how troubling mental illness can be in someone else's experience. Going through a real depressive episode during St Lukes, Vincent points out how it is materially better but bland in its effect. Finally, she finds real help in Mobius, where patients more like herself live in unlocked apartments and participate in a therapy-intense, medication-light program with Buddhist overtones. Here the reader learns more about Vincent's past, something one would think would have been disclosed earlier on such an intimate journey.
Vincent's conclusion--one willing to cultivate one's mental health can do so--is uplifting, but, like Mobius, probably would only benefit an already receptive audience. Not believing that one has to agree with what the author has to say for a book to be worth reading, I found this an interesting read, keeping in mind Vincent's biases and a tendency towards professional experimental autobiography instead of the more objective-sounding immersion journalism.
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Sep 10, 2009 Laren rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: medical, memoirs

The author calls herself an immersive journalist, and the idea for this book came to her during her treatment for a nervous breakdown at the end of the research for her last book. She would voluntarily check into several different residential mental health facilities, expose their differences and try to make the correlation with their success rates.

From the start it is clear that the author is already against psychiatric meds, and in the first facility, a public one primarily treating patients...more

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Jul 14, 2009 Charity rated it 5 of 5 stars

I don't know how I came across this book. Perhaps I read a review at the back of my Entertainment weekly. I don't recall but I rarely if ever read a NON-fiction book on purpose. I usually only read them for my college classes but something grabbed my attention and so I checked this out from the library. In her bio she tells of how she wrote SELF MADE MAN (haven't read it but want to) and how it kind of messed her up mentally but she also had some underlying degrees of depression already set so h...more

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Jul 12, 2009 Aj rated it 4 of 5 stars

It can be hurtful to read such an honest account of a consumer's view of one's profession. In her book, Vincent provides a critique of the mental health profession (specifically in an in-patient setting) from the point of view of a client. At first, I, as a mental health professional, felt that the critique was unfair. The quality of care provided is poor at many state in-patient programs but that is primarily due to lack of funding, not lack of caring, and that much of the funding comes from ph...more

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Jul 09, 2009 Terry rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, memoir

This book surprised me. I'm glad I stuck with it, because about 2/3rds of the way through, I thought "Uck, I can't take it anymore." Part of the reason I was frustrated was because of Vincent's endless intellectualizing--her mind NEVER SHUTS UP--and circling and thinking and thinking and circling and following ideas through to their ends--well, it reminded me too much of myself in that I just think and think and think and think and think and think and think. I have enough trouble with that mysel...more

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Jun 11, 2009 Alex Templeton rated it 2 of 5 stars

Norah Vincent decided to check herself into three different mental institutions with different approaches and different financial resources and write about the results. I found the concept appealing but the result not as compelling as I had expected. I didn't find that Vincent really drew any unique conclusions about the mental health care system, or our notions of psychology. There was a section that I even found particularly disturbing, in which she alluded to the idea that white, middle-class...more

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About Norah Vincent

Norah Vincent is an American writer.

Vincent was a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies from its 2001 inception to 2003[citation needed]. She has also had columns at Salon.com, The Advocate, the Los Angeles Times, and the Village Voice.

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Books by Norah Vincent

Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey Into Manhood and Back Again

Self-Made Man: One Woman's Journey Into Manhood and Back

How to Sound Smart: A Quick and Witty Guide

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Quotes from Voluntary Madness: Los...

“Normal life is nuts. It's a downhill deterioration to death no matter how you spice it along the way, and there's nothing you can do about it. Now, a sane person, when faced when that, would just plunk his ass down at the starting line, or wherever along the way this realization finally came to him, and say, "Are you kidding? I quit. I'll slide the rest of the way or sit here and smoke." It takes a true lunatic, or someone functioning with the critical apparatus of a worker bee, to keep scrabbling up that hill when he knows his destiny is dust. But that us what is required. Go on.” — 6 people liked it

“You want to be happy? You want to be well? Then put your boots on.” — 3 people liked it

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Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin

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