Nobody's Child

by Marie Balter, Richard Katz

Marie Balter's courageous story of hope and healing has inspired millions around the country. After spending the first twenty years of her adult life in a mental hospital, she gradually emerged from the terror of the back wards, eventually to attend graduate school at Harvard University and become a leading champion for the mentally ill.

Genres: Memoir, Mental Health, Nonfiction, Psychology, Mental Illness, Biography, Biography Memoir

240 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1991

Reviews

[Janice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, I've found a book where spirituality and psychology can co-exist. Marie's story is one I will look to for inspiration for years to come. Written in a matter-of-fact way that doesn't put shame on her struggle, I have ended the book with a renewed faith in God's healing and a great respect for the individual's journey of discovering the power of the will.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a time where we live in a world with instant gratification, it is refreshing to get a glance into the past of patience and hope. A past that shows a world of the misunderstood and forgotten from long ago. It is a tremendous reminder for those of us who have loved ones that suffer from organic brain disabilities, such as bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, mood disorder, etc. Each day is a struggle and a blessing; a hopeful prayer that tomorrow might just be better than today. This book is about one woman’s struggle to manage her dual diagnoses of depression and severe anxiety disorder. It is her tale of self-placement in and out of mental health hospitals, due to the lack of education and medication. The author describes her experiences of living in and out of the facilities throughout twenty years and gives a realistic perspective of what it is like on the inside. Gross methods of therapy are revealed to the reader and different levels of the ward are put under the microscope. More than anything, the book is a reminder of how through both personal perseverance and determination, a person can overcome profound challenges.

I truly enjoyed reading this book from beginning to end. I learned a great deal about past techniques that were used on patients of mental health hospitals. I was horrified on how individuals were lumped together and were often ignored for what seemed years at a time. Patients had to choose to get better in order to leave the hospital. I struggled with the author’s mental illness at first. I did not understand how a person could choose to enter a hospital with severe anxiety if they are not showing symptoms of typical mental illness. Later on in the book I came to learn of her depression and her over medication by the hospitals. I believe overall the book made me appreciate the system that we have today. It might need a great deal of improvement, but it has come a long way. I cannot imagine placing a child in a system such as the one the author had to suffer through. I strongly recommend this book for both educators and parents of children who are suffering from a mental illness. The book is a little dated, but the information is very important. History does not change, therefore it is always valuable.

[Margie Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing TRUE story ! It is a learning experience,as well as an extremely interesting account of how this marvelous woman took charge of her life while dealing with very serious anxiety and panic attacks.You can not help but have a magnitude of admiration for some one who was able to achieve what she has done. I think what you learn from this womans story is a greater compassion and empathy for people who are afflicted with conditions such as this,and you can see how back several years ago,there just wasn't the knowledge of these conditions,nor how to address and treat them.
A very good book !

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marie Balter spent the majority of the time between age 17 and her late thirties in Sutton Hospital in Boston. After her tenure there, she gradually managed to rejoin the outside world and eventually became an advocate for the mentally ill, particularly those who had been hospitalized for the long-term.

Balter's story is interesting, and is a good counterpoint to some other memoirs of mental illness, like Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, which tend to involved relatively brief stays in much nicer private hospitals. Balter's writing, unfortunately, is not particularly good; she frequently switches between past and present tense to describe events happening in the past, which sometimes makes it confusing, especially since she also jumps chronologically from the past to the present fairly frequently. I also wish that she had written a little more about exactly what she was supposed to be in the hospital for; at first, when she was seventeen, it seems like she mostly ended up there because she was depressed and didn't have anywhere else to go. Later, she seems to show signs of acute anxiety disorder and anxiety or depression-related psychosis, but since she was also on massive amounts of drugs in an experimental program, it's hard to know how much of the psychosis was caused by this.

The final thing I was curious about is that at the time she wrote her memoir, Balter was working closely with patient's rights groups and seems to have been part of the movement to get more people released from the hospitals into group home situations. While she seemed to have a strong sense that there was a right and a wrong way to do this, I do wish that she'd talked more about how the massive closings of state mental institutions in 70s affected the population of the homeless and mentally ill.

[Anita Schweppe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled on this book at the library when grabbing books in a hurry in the beginning of the biography section. So glad I did. It would be a great book for someone who is currently dealing with the mental health system as a patient or a caregiver. Because it provides insight into the "old days" of mental health and how far we have come. Also provides hope for those who feel that they cannot get out of the system.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author is actually my grandmother's adopted cousin. It is all about her life in the Danvers State Hospital. I remember when she wrote it, I was really young. She used to tell us stories about it, but I have never actually read the book. Now that I am older, I really want to read it.

[Devin Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE THIS BOOK! It had to of been one of the best books that I have ever read. It went into great detail of Marie's life. I would say that it was very depressing. Something that only well fit people should read.

[Beverley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the book dry to read. It felt like I was reading outside of the story, simply as an observer watching a woman struggle between living outside and living inside institutional care. Stating that I admire Marie Balter, her strength and courage to share her life story with society at large, and the incredible strides she undertook to be "the best version of self." It came through clearly how strong wise and compassionate she is, despite the adversity she lived through both as an adult and throughout her childhood. It is a book that shows the destruction of the past constraints upon those struggling with mental illness and how far we've come as a society - we have much further to go, and it's good we are no longer massively institutionalizing everyone blindly. If you hold an interest in reading stories about strong self-advocates and/or mental illness, I would recommend this book.

[Zanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is about mental health and how the system fails to provide the right care for those with mental illnesses. Reading Marie's story felt very real and heartbreaking because of what she had been through in her life. Even though it was released in the late 90s, it's still an eye-opener today. Overall, 4 out of 5! #mariedeservessomuchbetterfr.

[Noora · Rating 5 out of 5]

امضت ماري عشرين عامًا في مستشفى للأمراض النفسية و العقلية. طلعت ماري من المصحة وكانت الممرضات يتراهنون على متى ترجع، رجعت بالفعل ولكن كمسؤولة تلقى محاضرة في اعادة تأهيل المرضى النفسيين. الكتاب اتعمل فيلم بنفس العنوان

[Deb Gesualdo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of Marie Balter’s time in Danvers State Hospital and it’s both heartbreaking and inspiring. Worth the read if you can get your hands on it.

[Demet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Severek okuduğumu söyleyemem, odaklanıp sabırla okuyamadım maalesef. Türkçe çeviri goodreadsde yok yorumu buraya yapmak durumunda kaldım.

[sadie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a huge fan of non-fiction, but this book was really good. I learned more about mental health, and Marie Balter's story is amazing.

[Kaylagrace]

I genuinely can not bring myself to rate a memoir. it’s really good tho!

[bułka · Rating 5 out of 5]

czytanie tej książki było straszne, nie potrafiłam sobie wyobrazić jak jedna osoba cierpi tak dużo i mimo to ma siłę walczyć o innych. Marie Balter to istny anioł.

[Josette Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heart inspiring story - Marie Balter spent the first twenty years of her adult life in mental hospitals (from late 40's to late 60's). Descriptions of the care and treatment are gruesome. She was surrounded by good nurses but also with extremely abusive ones (I suppose nothing has changed since in the 21st century we still see violence administered to old people in care homes). She was also subjected to massive doses of Stellazine in the hope to help her. Somehow Marie found the will and the belief that she can get better. And she did with the help of her friends. Not only did she manage to overcome all her issues slowly but surely including the stigma that accompanies mental sufferers, she went back to school and ended up with a master's degree from Harvard University. She became the leading advocate for the mentally ill, lecturer, and Director of Community Affairs at Danvers State Hospital.
I wish Marie wrote a little more about her work and how she helped mentally ill patients. The last 50 or so pages do not give enough credit to all her work and the hope she gave to the patients.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a quick, easy read of a remarkable life. absent a supportive family, the author became slowly institutionalized as mental health institutions became her de facto harbor to deal with crippling anxiety and depression. that she triumphed to attend Harvard and become a professional social worker is a tale of individual triumph that in some ways recalls to me that of Temple Grandin.

[Jennifer]

Another book showing the life inside a mental institution.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written memoir. Quick read.

[Jamie Howerton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good, but not nearly as interesting as I thought it would be.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book.

[Jill Moreno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't put the book down