Out of the Shadows: Confronting America's Mental Illness Crisis - Hardcover

Torrey, E. Fuller

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471161616 ISBN 13: 9780471161615

Publisher: Wiley, 1996

Synopsis

"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

About this title

Review

E. Fuller Torrey excoriates the way the mentally ill are treated in this country. His polemic against the concept of "deinstitutionalization" takes us on a grim tour of the lives led by the mentally ill: untreated, homeless, jobless, and helpless against street violence. Torrey argues that the criteria for involuntary commitment should include the need for treatment.

From the Publisher

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 this edition

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0471161616
• ISBN 13: 9780471161615
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256