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Contemporary Ethnography
Shelter Blues: Sanity and Selfhood Among the Homeless
Desjarlais shows us not anonymous faces of the homeless but real people.
While it is estimated that 25 percent or more of America's homeless are mentally ill, their lives are largely unknown to us. What must life be like for those who, in addition to living on the street, hear voices, suffer paranoid delusions, or have trouble thinking clearly or talking to others.
Shelter Blues is an innovative portrait of people residing in Boston's Station Street Shelter. It examines the everyday lives of more than 40 homeless men and women, both white and African-American, ranging in age from early 20s to mid-60s. Based on a sixteen-month study, it draws readers into the personal worlds of these individuals and, by addressing the intimacies of homelessness, illness, and abjection, picks up where most scholarship and journalism stops.
Robert Desjarlais works against the grain of media representations of homelessness by showing us not anonymous stereotypes but individuals. He draws on conversations as well as observations, talking with and listening to shelter residents to understand how they relate to their environment, to one another, and to those entrusted with their care. His book considers their lives in terms of a complex range of forces and helps us comprehend the linkages between culture, illness, personhood, and political agency on the margins of contemporary American society.
Shelter Blues is unlike anything else ever written about homelessness. It challenges social scientists and mental health professionals to rethink their approaches to human subjectivity and helps us all to better understand one of the most pressing problems of our time.
While it is estimated that 25 percent or more of America's homeless are mentally ill, their lives are largely unknown to us. What must life be like for those who, in addition to living on the street, hear voices, suffer paranoid delusions, or have trouble thinking clearly or talking to others.
Shelter Blues is an innovative portrait of people residing in Boston's Station Street Shelter. It examines the everyday lives of more than 40 homeless men and women, both white and African-American, ranging in age from early 20s to mid-60s. Based on a sixteen-month study, it draws readers into the personal worlds of these individuals and, by addressing the intimacies of homelessness, illness, and abjection, picks up where most scholarship and journalism stops.
Robert Desjarlais works against the grain of media representations of homelessness by showing us not anonymous stereotypes but individuals. He draws on conversations as well as observations, talking with and listening to shelter residents to understand how they relate to their environment, to one another, and to those entrusted with their care. His book considers their lives in terms of a complex range of forces and helps us comprehend the linkages between culture, illness, personhood, and political agency on the margins of contemporary American society.
Shelter Blues is unlike anything else ever written about homelessness. It challenges social scientists and mental health professionals to rethink their approaches to human subjectivity and helps us all to better understand one of the most pressing problems of our time.
320 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1997
2 people are currently reading
145 people want to read
About the author
Robert Desjarlais
12 books4 followersRobert Desjarlais is an award-winning anthropologist and writer teaching at Sarah Lawrence College. His many books include Subject to Death: Life and Loss in a Buddhist World (Chicago, 2016), Counterplay: An Anthropologist at the Chessboard (California, 2011), and Shelter Blues: Sanity and Selfhood Among the Homeless (Penn, 1997).
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 9, 2022
Real good shit.
Much more granular & theoretical and not as cinematic as Vita, which was what led me to it. But I learned to love this book on its own terms by the end.
Whereas Biehl used Vita to trace his subject's journey and history in a very narrative way, Desjarlais' approach here is more like staying out and breaking down every type of interaction and setting that occurs in the station street shelter.
The book feels less like a grand expose because of this and more of a meditation on how we treat homeless people and how most people in North America take their society's logic for granted and try to apply it even to those on the margins. Loved Desjarlais' illustration of the shelter as a factory meant to "reprogram" the individuals that pass through.
Going to read a lot more of this anthropology/ethnography type stuff. Love the way it obsessively tears apart familiar institutions and makes them seem alien.
Much more granular & theoretical and not as cinematic as Vita, which was what led me to it. But I learned to love this book on its own terms by the end.
Whereas Biehl used Vita to trace his subject's journey and history in a very narrative way, Desjarlais' approach here is more like staying out and breaking down every type of interaction and setting that occurs in the station street shelter.
The book feels less like a grand expose because of this and more of a meditation on how we treat homeless people and how most people in North America take their society's logic for granted and try to apply it even to those on the margins. Loved Desjarlais' illustration of the shelter as a factory meant to "reprogram" the individuals that pass through.
Going to read a lot more of this anthropology/ethnography type stuff. Love the way it obsessively tears apart familiar institutions and makes them seem alien.
May 4, 2013
I found that the subject of the homeless was interesting but it was a bit difficult to get through the whole book. Despite that, there were interesting insights and if you manage to get past the difficulty of getting through it, it is an overall compelling read and provides you with a better perspective.
December 6, 2012
Some excellent observations though a bit of a painful read (and I love theory though I don't seem to be much for the psych-Anth style). All was worth it for the brief but nuanced and important discussion of agency.
November 11, 2025
Skimmed most of the theoretical and grand concept writing and focused mostly on Desjarlais’ interactions with the people. Not super expository but does a great job of observing and giving voice to those who don’t have one
December 2, 2007
Looking at people in a homeless shelter for the mentally ill. Pretty crazy stuff. Some interesting insights on routine and time.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews