Women of the Asylum: Voices from Behind the Walls, 1840-1945
A collaborative effort between psychiatrist Geller and Harris, a clinical psychologist, feminist, and author of Women and Madness (1972), this compilation of excerpts from 26 firsthand accounts written between 1840 and 1945 by women confined in asylums are a testament to human endurance. In the patriarchal society of 19th-and early 20th-century America, it was easy to get women out of the way by having them declared "insane." The women were confined against their will, betrayed, degraded and beaten, raped, starved, robbed, punished, force-fed, and treated as unpaid labor. These heroic accounts tell of their struggles to hold on to their sanity and dignity within a brutalizing system. The editors' introduction places the accounts within a historical context. In view of women's ongoing struggles with both the medical and psychiatric establishments, this is a timely and important book. Recommended for all collections.--Lesley Jorbin, Cleveland State Univ. Lib., OhioCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.