Synopses & Reviews
"Powerful. . . . The crisis [Torrey] delineates should stir any halfway sensitive human being to anger."—The New York Times Book Review
"Brilliant and remarkably detailed. . . . Dr. Torrey, our clearest and most informed voice for the mentally ill, offers his own insightful plan for a way out . . . of a healthcare scandal that remains one of America's most enduring shames."—Phil Donahue.
"If President Clinton is looking for a worthy goal to accomplish in his second term, here's one: Rescue the homeless mentally ill. It can be done. . . . Dr. E. Fuller Torrey . . . provides a five-year road map in Out of the Shadows."—New York Daily News.
"An important book . . . timely and very well written."—The New England Journal of Medicine.
"Controversial ideas, forcefully presented."—Kirkus Reviews
"Moving and vivid. . . . Torrey's powerful prescription for change challenges conventional wisdom and political correctness. His searing case examples will haunt the reader."—Laurie Flynn Executive Director National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
Review
"A powerful indictment of how we treat people suffering from acute mental disease....The crisis [Torrey] delineates should stir any halfway sensitive human being to anger." Daniel J. Kevles, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Brilliant and remarkably detailed....Dr. Torrey, our clearest and most informed voice for the mentally ill, offers his own insightful plan for a way out...of a healthcare scandal that remains one of America's most enduring shames." Phil Donahue
Review
"If President Clinton is looking for a worthy goal to accomplish in his second term, here's one: Rescue the homeless mentally ill. It can be done....Dr. E. Fuller Torrey...provides a five-year road map in Out of the Shadows." New York Daily News
Review
"An important book...timely and very well written." The New England Journal of Medicine
Review
"Controversial ideas, forcefully presented." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Moving and vivid....Torrey's powerful prescription for change challenges conventional wisdom and political correctness. His searing case examples will haunt the reader." Laurie Flynn Executive Director National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
Synopsis
This book is concerned with the social implications of the deinstitutionalization of people with serious and dangerous mental illness. Author E. Fuller Torrey draws on nearly forty years of clinical and research experience to explore solutions to America's mental illness problems and the reasons these solutions are not pursued. He separates "mental illness" (schizophrenia, manic-depressive illness, and other brain-based disorders) from "mental health" (the "worried well," and people suffering from quality-of-life and emotional problems). This compassionate study provides a complete analysis of how the mental health system has failed and the far-reaching repercussions of this failure, such as homelessness, violence in the community, and the strain on families of the mentally ill. Controversial and compelling, this book offers a unique perspective on the current state of managing the mentally ill and a plan for the future.
About the Author
E. FULLER TORREY, M.D., is a research psychiatrist at the Neuroscience Center of the National Institute of Mental Health. He is also the author of fifteen books, including the bestselling Surviving Schizophrenia, which has been described as the "bible" of the mentally ill and their families.
Table of Contents
People in the Shadows: The Many Faces of Mental Illness.
Nowhere to Go: Homelessness and Mental Illness.
Jails and Prisons.
Walking Time Bombs: Violence and the Mentally Ill.
Psychiatric Ghettos: Communities and Families.
Looking Backward: Where We Have Been.
New Initiatives in Funding.
From Legal Folly to Common Sense: The Right to Get Well.
From the Woody Allen Syndrome to Brain Disease.
Looking Forward: Where We Should Be Going.
Appendix.
References.
Index.