Bedlam: A Year in the Life of a Mental Hospital
Following his earlier Confessions of a Medical Heretic ( LJ 5/1/79), Bosco presents a biographical expose of conditions within a state mental hospital along the lines of Ivan Illich's Medical Nemesis ( LJ 5/1/76). By providing an outsider's view of the situation, he offers a valuable counterpoint to books by former patients (such as Kate Millett's The Loony-Bin Trip, LJ 4/15/90) and guards (Tom Ryan's Screw: A Guard's View of Bridgewater State Hospital, South End Pr., 1981). Bosco's descriptions of violence, horror, filth, and gallows humor, plus portraits of caring but demoralized staff working against inept bureaucrats more concerned with their own comfort than that of their patients, make this an eye-opening experience. A troubling book, difficult to put down, this belongs in psychology and social work collections.- Scott Johnson, Meridian Community Coll. Lib., Miss.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.