Soteria: Through Madness to Deliverance

by Loren R. Mosher, Voyce Hendrix, Deborah C. Fort

This is the story of a special time, space, and place where young people diagnosed as

Genres: Psychology, Mental Health

360 pages, Paperback

First published December 21, 2004

Reviews

[Tristan Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, what an interesting book. From the outset you feel invited in to learn a bit about a space set aside from the rest of the world. At its best it feels revolutionary, like it carries the potential to offer a truly remarkable change to the way we see mental health treatment that could mean the difference in the well being of many. At its worst it feels unreflective, welcoming of intuition with little thought as to whether that was actually the right path or not.

What I liked least about the book was its disorganization, repetitiveness, and lack of practical help putting this style of treatment into practice. The staunch Soterialite might reply “But it’s about general principles, about being with rather than conveying specific ways that they were with in the house. To give specific examples would betray their sense of temporality, their sense of only working then and there, with those specific people, and would misguide those seeking to replicate the magic”. And sure, I get the sense of trying to teach a style rather than being a guidebook to how to concretely make it run, but I still think the book suffered a great deal from not at least letting us peek more into what life was like. We got snippets of moments and rarely got to actually know any one person well, and I would have loved to read more chapters like Structure where we actually got to see most of a full day and what the activities around the house looked like then. I also have the sense that the project took presence in the moment too far, and that some of the reason for its failure was a lack of a focus on the future and how the project could continue, so in this way I think the failure of the book to do the same might have naturally flowed out of the original structure.

What I liked most about the book was when we got to see how they dealt with patients, when they were able to talk someone through a break with reality and slowly bring them back. I think this book gave me a much deeper hope for treatment of schizophrenics, and a greater sense of ease in my own interaction with them, viewing them less as “other” and more as “different”. I also deeply appreciated the people that played a role in the project. Their dedication and belief often came through, and I think they really made a lot of lives better from this project. Soteria, as a project, was easily a 5/5, the book just fell short of capturing that idea in all its beauty.

[Emma Burris · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS BOOKKKKKKKK…..holy shit this was so beautiful and inspiring i wanted to cry when i finished it. i have so so many thoughts on this. while maybe i wouldn’t want to work those insane hours soteria staff worked it would be such an honor to be a part of an alternative-to-hospitalization program such as this. this is so so beautiful wow. wow.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Soteria is about a study done in the 70's and early 80's on people who were diagnosed with severe schizophrenia. In San Jose, CA they established a house where "residents" could live together with other residents and staff "presencing" with one another (presencing was what they called it when residents and staff spent all their time together). They did not use medications unless the residents want them. They had very minimal rules in the house and residents were allowed to think, do, and say pretty much anything they wanted. There was no therapy, no coercion, no discipline (it was the 70's after all). The theory was that even people who were severely "touched" were normal underneath it all. Essentially, they simply loved the residents. The results were pretty spectacular. Pretty much everyone was "cured" and sent back to normal life. The house was closed down, according to the authors, because it showed a better recovery rate than the state run medically oriented hospital.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a little over a decade, starting in 1971, controversial psychiatrist Loren Mosher, with others, set up an experimental house to treat mild forms of schizophrenia. The purpose was not to medicate, but to safely guide people going through their acute episodes. Soteria is a fascinating and brutally real summary of some of those stories. The people who dedicated themselves to the project demonstrated a noble effort to understand the human condition.

Though there were many positive results, the project lost funding and slipped into obscurity under America’s overshadowing use of psychopharmacy. Fortunately, there are some current models active in Europe and a scattered resurgence in America as well.

Soteria is about the stories of the people. It’s not a detailed history of the program and the psychiatric response. But that’s what makes the book, like the project, so intriguing.