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83rd out of 411 books
—
424 voters
Agnes's Jacket: A Psychologist's Search for the Meanings of Madness
In a Victorian-era German asylum, seamstress Agnes Richter painstakingly stitched a mysterious autobiographical text into every inch of the jacket she created from her institutional uniform. Despite every attempt to silence them, hundreds of other patients have managed to get their stories out, at least in disguised form. Today, in a vibrant underground net-work of “psychi...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published
March 17th 2009
by Rodale Books
(first published 2009)
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*** the review below was written some time ago. now that i have read the whole book i don't have a whole lot to add except the following. this book deserves to be read widely and carefully. it's a wonderful book and a delightful, riveting read. it's written as a story and it's packed with beauty, intelligence, wisdom. it is a clarion call for much-needed change. if we continue treating mental illness the way we are currently doing (especially in the US), we will create a larger and larger genera...more
Sep 24, 2012
Lynn Tolson
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
therapists, counselors, mental health interests, mental illness interests, doctors, psychologists
Shelves:
psychology,
sociology
Dr. Hornstein is a psychology professor at Mount Holyoke College. She states: “For as long as I can remember, madness has fascinated me… I had an intuitive sense that it must be possible to enter someone else’s experience and make sense of actions that from the outside might look inexplicable.” This empathic approach shows in the stories she weaves into Agnes’s Jacket. Agnes Richter was a hospitalized German woman who stitched messages on her jacket to express herself. Dr. Hornstein uses the jac...more
Hornstein's examination of the "psychiatric survivor" movement is interesting, but reads more as a paean to psychotherapy and other alternative therapies than Kramer's Listening to Prozac was an apologia for Prozac. (Admittedly, it's been a long time since I read Kramer's work, but I remember being distinctly uneasy about Prozac after reading Kramer's work - not a reaction one would expect from Hornstein's description of the work.) Hornstein's analysis of outsider art is more balanced and certai...more
I guess I thought this book was going to be more of Agnes's story. I found that viewing Agnes's jacket on display is what got the author inspired to write the book. The book is mostly about the author talking to people attending the Hearing Voices support groups in Britain. They consider themselves to be survivors of unsuccessful treatments for their mental illness (shock therapy, meds, psych wards) and are trying to find a way to learn to live with their "normal" selves, hearing voices, etc. Si...more
This book investigates the "underground network of psychiatric survivor groups all over the world" to support her claim that it's people, not pills and isolation that help the mentally ill find ways to cope and heal. The book's full of history and first person stories. Great bibliography, namely for resources and narratives of madness.
A better review is forthcoming. In short, the author did herself a disservice by dismissing entirely opinions that disagreed with her thesis. The book would have been much much stronger if she wrote about the possibility that some people are helped by a biological understanding of mental disorders and by pharmaceutical treatments. There was also a lot of focus on mental hospitals in the 1960's and earlier without much discussion of how they have changed since then, leaving the sense that the aut...more
Very interesting look at people who hear voices and the Voice Hearers Network in Britain. Comes to the revolutionary discovery that listening to people talk about the voices they hear may be more beneficial for people than locking them up and drugging them to mindlessness.
I thought this book would be much more interesting than it turned out to be, but it was still pretty good. Hornstein states her thesis at the beginning--that psychologists have lately swung too far in the direction of understanding mental illness according to a biological model and it's high time for the pendulum to swing back the other way. But the book doesn't go much farther than that. It has some interesting stories. And as someone who anticipates working occasionally with people who have se...more
A good follow up to Anatomy of an Epidemic..
Apr 06, 2011
Hazel
marked it as to-read
Recommended by jo.
A must read for anyone in the field of psychology
I learned a lot about the psychiatric survivor movement, and why it is necessary.
(i hope that i will write a real review at some time.)
for now, Gail Hornstein talks about Agnes's Jacket:
http://freedom-center.org/radio/Horns...
(on local NPR affiliate)
http://madnessradio.net/sites/default...
(on madness radio)
for now, Gail Hornstein talks about Agnes's Jacket:
http://freedom-center.org/radio/Horns...
(on local NPR affiliate)
http://madnessradio.net/sites/default...
(on madness radio)
1 like
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A very different and enlightening view from western psychiatry/mental health treatment. The mind is a truly amazing thing.
With the state of our economy in the US and the world, America could use more services and programs like Hearing Voices Network to support people in the ways they need and will benefit most from.
With the state of our economy in the US and the world, America could use more services and programs like Hearing Voices Network to support people in the ways they need and will benefit most from.
England appears to be way ahead of the US in terms of helping and accepting people with mental illness. Built into the health system is compassion and real help. Although this book focuses on voice hearers it does touch on other areas of mental health.
Written by a prof of psychology ally of the mad movement and my own org, the Freedom Center--she even has a chapter about us here.
You always feel remiss when you don't read your friends' books...
We'll see how it goes.
You always feel remiss when you don't read your friends' books...
We'll see how it goes.
This is a really interesting book & worth reading if you are interested in understanding mental illnesses from other than mainstream perspectives.
May 20, 2013
Jill Marie
marked it as to-read
May 20, 2013
Jacqueline Elcock
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May 19, 2013
Sarah
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May 19, 2013
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May 18, 2013
Fenix Rose
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May 17, 2013
Alexandra Wilson
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May 16, 2013
Jenifer
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Lisa Mcelfresh
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May 11, 2013
Brianna
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Apr 06, 2011 01:01pm
this is the passage i singled out for you (marked "hazel" in margins): "...more
Apr 06, 2011 03:38pm