Under Observation: Life Inside a Psychiatric Hospital
Berger (We Heard the Angels of Madness, LJ 4/1/91) and psychiatrist Vuckovic describe life at one unit of McLean Hospital, a psychiatric facility near Boston, during a typical two-week period. Since only the sickest patients are given inpatient treatment, crisis management is the style in mental hospitals today. Doctors must achieve quick results through psychopharmacology, stabilizing patients enough to allow them to benefit from outpatient care. Although each chapter focuses on an individual patient, allowing the reader some familiarity, the stories are told from the psychiatrist's and his staff's points of view, relating the frustrations and successes they meet each day. Separate chapters describe the study of mental illness and the treatment that is carried on within the research arm of the hospital. Recommended for both lay readers and professionals.--Marguerite Mroz, Baltimore Cty. P.L.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.