American Snake Pit: Hope, Grit, and Resilience in the Wake of Willowbrook - Softcover

Daniel J. Tomasulo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1945233028 ISBN 13: 9781945233029

Publisher: Stillhouse Press, 2018

Synopsis

WE HAVE A SITUATION THAT BORDERS ON A SNAKE PIT.
-- ROBERT F. KENNEDY

In 1987, following a public outcry about its questionable medical practices, Staten Island's Willowbrook State School for people with intellectual disabilities closed its doors for good.

Flat broke and almost finished with graduate school, Dan Tomasulo -- now a core faculty member at Columbia University's Spirituality Mind Body Institute -- was hired to relocate Willowbrook's most severely disabled inhabitants into a groundbreaking community-based group home.

American Snake Pit is the story of the disregarded souls who ended up in Tomasulo's care; of the eccentric, resilient staff who helped make such a momentous success possible; and, most of all, of one man s persistent struggle to give voices to those who could not advocate for themselves.

About this title

About the Author:

Dan Tomasulo is the author of two previous titles, most recently Confessions of a Former Child: A Therapist s Memoir (Graywolf Press, 2008), winner of the 2009 Rebecca's Reads Written Arts Award in Creative Nonfiction. He co-authored Healing Trauma: The Power of Group Treatment for People with Intellectual Disabilities (2005), the American Psychological Association s first book on psychotherapy for people with intellectual disabilities, and is also the author of Action Methods In Group Psychotherapy: Practical Aspects (Taylor & Francis, 1998). His second memoir, American Snake Pit, was selected as a finalist for The Southampton Review's 2016 Frank McCourt Memoir Prize and the screenplay has received over 20 awards at international film festivals since June 2017.

Review:

Dan Tomasulo's tale of hope and grit explores a dark blemish in American history, re-framing the narrative both of his own life and that of his patients through hard work and compassion, and irrevocably altering the civil rights discourse about how we care for the most severely intellectually disabled in this country. If you want people to change for the better, you have to change their situation. American Snake Pit shows with courage and compassion how this can be done. From my viewpoint, this is the formula for hope. --Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Stanford University and author, THE LUCIFER EFFECT

American Snake Pit by Dan Tomasulo is a poignant, needed reminder to America about the benefit of group homes for people who are living with serious mental illness and developmental disabilities. Told from his first-person perspective in managing and running such a home early in his career as a psychologist, it offers a convincing argument that most Americans don t spend nearly enough time thinking about their less fortunate fellow citizens. --John M. Grohol, Psych Central

A chilling memoir about the monumental challenges facing the intellectually disabled. But it s also a beautifully written, empathetic case for hope, resilience, and the transformative power of community. --Adam Grant, Ph. D., New York Times bestselling author of GIVE AND TAKE, ORIGINALS, and OPTION B (with Sheryl Sandberg)

About this edition

• Publisher: Stillhouse Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1945233028
• ISBN 13: 9781945233029
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 290