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This Week’s Audio Book:
Voluntary
Madness:
My
Year
Lost
and
Found
in
the
Loony
Bin
by Norah Vincent
Featured the week of February 8, 2010
The
journalist
who
famously
lived
as
a
man
commits
herself—
literally.
Norah
Vincent's
New
York
Times
bestselling
book,
Self-Made
Man,
ended
on
a
harrowing
note.
Suffering
from
severe
depression
after
her
eighteen
months
living
disguised
as
a
man,
Vincent
felt
she
was
a
danger
to
herself.
On
the
advice
of
her
psychologist
she
committed
herself
to
a
mental
institution.
Out
of
this
raw
and
overwhelming
experience
came
the
idea
for
her
next
book.
She
decided
to
get
healthy
and
to
study
the
effect
of
treatment
on
the
depressed
and
insane
"in
the
bin,"
as
she
calls
it.
Vincent's
journey
takes
her
from
a
big
city
hospital
to
a
facility
in
the
Midwest
and
finally
to
an
upscale
retreat
down
south,
as
she
analyzes
the
impact
of
institutionalization
on
the
unwell,
the
tyranny
of
drugs-as-treatment,
and
the
dysfunctional
dynamic
between
caregivers
and
patients.
Vincent
applies
brilliant
insight
as
she
exposes
her
personal
struggle
with
depression
and
explores
the
range
of
people,
caregivers,
and
methodologies
that
guide
these
strange,
often
scary,
and
bizarre
environments.
Eye
opening,
emotionally
wrenching,
and
at
times
very
funny,
Voluntary
Madness
is
a
riveting
work
that
exposes
the
state
of
mental
healthcare
in
America
from
the
inside
out.
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