Download or read book Asylum on the Hill written by Katherine Ziff and published by . This book was released on 2018-07-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Asylum on the Hill is the story of a great American experiment in psychiatry, a revolution in care for those with mental illness, as seen through the example of the Athens Lunatic Asylum. Built in southeast Ohio after the Civil War, the asylum embodied the nineteenth-century "gold standard" specifications of moral treatment. Stories of patients and their families, politicians, caregivers, and community illustrate how a village in the coalfields of the Hocking River valley responded to a national movement to provide compassionate care based on a curative landscape, exposure to the arts, outdoor exercise, useful occupation, and personal attention from a physician. Katherine Ziff's compelling presentation of America's nineteenth-century asylum movement shows how the Athens Lunatic Asylum accommodated political, economic, community, family, and individual needs and left an architectural legacy that has been uniquely renovated and repurposed. Incorporating rare photos, letters, maps, and records, Asylum on the Hill is a fascinating glimpse into psychiatric history.

Download or read book Asylum written by Christopher Payne and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2009-09-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Powerful photographs of the grand exteriors and crumbling interiors of America's abandoned state mental hospitals. For more than half the nation's history, vast mental hospitals were a prominent feature of the American landscape. From the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth, over 250 institutions for the insane were built throughout the United States; by 1948, they housed more than a half million patients. The blueprint for these hospitals was set by Pennsylvania hospital superintendant Thomas Story Kirkbride: a central administration building flanked symmetrically by pavilions and surrounded by lavish grounds with pastoral vistas. Kirkbride and others believed that well-designed buildings and grounds, a peaceful environment, a regimen of fresh air, and places for work, exercise, and cultural activities would heal mental illness. But in the second half of the twentieth century, after the introduction of psychotropic drugs and policy shifts toward community-based care, patient populations declined dramatically, leaving many of these beautiful, massive buildings—and the patients who lived in them—neglected and abandoned. Architect and photographer Christopher Payne spent six years documenting the decay of state mental hospitals like these, visiting seventy institutions in thirty states. Through his lens we see splendid, palatial exteriors (some designed by such prominent architects as H. H. Richardson and Samuel Sloan) and crumbling interiors—chairs stacked against walls with peeling paint in a grand hallway; brightly colored toothbrushes still hanging on a rack; stacks of suitcases, never packed for the trip home. Accompanying Payne's striking and powerful photographs is an essay by Oliver Sacks (who described his own experience working at a state mental hospital in his book Awakenings). Sacks pays tribute to Payne's photographs and to the lives once lived in these places, “where one could be both mad and safe.”

Download or read book Danvers State Hospital written by Katherine Anderson and Robert Duffy and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2018 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Danvers State Hospital revolutionized mental health care for more than a century, beginning in 1878. Today, it's buildings still have stories to tell. Perched high on the top of Hathorne Hill in what was once the village of Salem, Danvers State Insane Asylum was, for more than a century, a monument to modern psychiatry and the myriad advances in mental health treatment. From the time it opened its doors in 1878 until they were shuttered for good in 1992, the asylum represented decades of reform, the physical embodiment of the heroic visions of Dorothea Dix and Thomas Story Kirkbride. It would stand abandoned until 2005, when demolition began. Along with a dedicated group of private citizens, the Danvers Historical Society fought to preserve the Kirkbride structure, an effort that would result in the reuse of the administration building and two additional wings. Danvers has earned a unique place in history; the shell of the original Kirkbride building still stands overlooking the town. Though it has been changed drastically, the asylum's story continues as do efforts to memorialize it.

Download or read book The Girls with No Names written by Serena Burdick and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2020-01-07 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INSTANT INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A beautiful tale of hope, courage, and sisterhood—inspired by the real House of Mercy and the girls confined there for daring to break the rules. Growing up in New York City in the 1910s, Luella and Effie Tildon realize that even as wealthy young women, their freedoms come with limits. But when the sisters discover a shocking secret about their father, Luella, the brazen elder sister, becomes emboldened to do as she pleases. Her rebellion comes with consequences, and one morning Luella is mysteriously gone. Effie suspects her father has sent Luella to the House of Mercy and hatches a plan to get herself committed to save her sister. But she made a miscalculation, and with no one to believe her story, Effie’s own escape seems impossible—unless she can trust an enigmatic girl named Mable. As their fates entwine, Mable and Effie must rely on their tenuous friendship to survive. Home for Unwanted Girls meets The Dollhouse in this atmospheric, heartwarming story that explores not only the historical House of Mercy, but the lives—and secrets—of the girls who stayed there. “Burdick has spun a cautionary tale of struggle and survival, love and family — and above all, the strength of the heart, no matter how broken.” — New York Times Book Review “Burdick reveals the perils of being a woman in 1913 and exposes the truths of their varying social circles.” — Chicago Tribune

Download or read book Hospital Hill written by Katherine Anderson and published by . This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After almost three decades of living and working at Northampton Hospital for the insane, it's time for Valerie Martin to make a change and watch as the hospital closes its doors for good. But Northampton isn't done with her. Fifteen years later and weeks before retirement she finds herself back within its walls completing one last task for the department. A job that will uncover a dark and disturbing secret the hospital has kept hidden for years. As she digs further into the mystery, she must relive her memories and her own time at Northampton Hospital; something that may change her forever. Welcome back to Hospital Hill

Download or read book The Asylum written by John Harwood and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2013 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After waking up in a small asylum in England with no memory of the past several weeks, Georgia Ferrars learns that her family believes she is an imposter.

Download or read book Life at the Texas State Lunatic Asylum 1857 1997 written by Sarah C. Sitton and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The nineteenth-century "cult of curability" engendered the optimistic belief that mental illness could be cured under ideal conditions--removal from the stresses of everyday life to asylum, a pleasant, well-regulated environment where healthy meals, daily exercise, and social contact were the norm. This utopian view led to the reform and establishment of lunatic asylums throughout the United States. The Texas State Lunatic Asylum (later called the Austin State Hospital) followed national trends, and its history documents national mental health practices in microcosm. Drawing on diverse sources--patient records from the nineteenth century, papers and reports of the institution's various superintendents, transcripts of interviews of former employees, newspaper accounts, personal memoirs, and interviews--Sarah C. Sitton has recreated what life in "our little town" was like from the institution's opening in 1861 to its de-institutionalization in the 1980s and 1990s. For more than a century, the asylum community resembled a self-sufficient village complete with its own blacksmith shop, icehouse, movie theater, brass band, baseball team, and undertakers. Beautifully landscaped grounds and gravel lanes attracted locals for Sunday carriage drives. Patients tended livestock, tilled gardens, helped prepare meals, and cleaned wards. Their routines might include weekly dances and religious services, as well as cold tubs, paraldehyde, and electroshock. Employees, from the superintendent on down, lived on the grounds, and their children grew up "with inmates for playmates." While the superintendent exercised almost feudal power, deciding if staff could date or marry, a multigenerational "clan" of several interlinked families controlled its day-to-day operations for decades. With the current emphasis on community-based care for the mentally ill and the negative consequences of de-institutionalization increasingly apparent, the debate on how best to care for the state's--and the nation's--mentally ill continues. This examination offers historical and practical insights which will be of interest to practitioners and policy makers in the field of mental health as well as to individuals interested in the history of the state of Texas.

Download or read book Asylum written by Patrick McGrath and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-01-05 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Patrick McGrath has created his most psychologically penetrating vision to date: a nightmare world rocked to its foundations by a passion of such force and intensity that it shatters the lives--and minds--of all who are touched by it. Stella Raphael, a woman of great beauty and formidable intelligence, is married to Max, a staid and unimaginative forensic psychiatrist. Max has taken a job in a huge top-security mental hospital in rural England, and Stella, far from London society, finds herself restless and bored. Into her lonely existence comes Edgar Stark, a brilliant sculptor confined to the hospital after killing his wife in a psychotic rage. He comes to Stella's garden to rebuild an old Victorian conservatory there, and Stella cannot ignore her overwhelming physical attraction to this desperate man. Their explosive affair pits them against Stella's husband, her child, and the entire institution. When the crisis comes to a head, Stella makes a decision--one that will destroy several lives and precipitate an appalling tragedy that could only be fueled by illicit sexual love. Asylum is a terrifying exploration of the extremes to which erotic obsession can drive us. Patrick McGrath brings his own dazzling blend of cool artistry and visceral engagement to this mesmerizing story of a fatal love and its unspeakably tragic aftermath. And in Stella Raphael, a woman who tears down the walls of her constricted existence to pursue a dangerous passion, he has created a character who will long be remembered for her willingness to take the ultimate risk, even if she must pay the ultimate price.

Download or read book Nightmare Factories written by Troy Rondinone and published by Johns Hopkins University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing from fictional and real accounts, movies, personal interviews, and tours of mental hospitals both active and defunct, Rondinone uncovers a story at once familiar and bizarre, where reality meets fantasy in the foggy landscape of celluloid and pulp.

Download or read book The Asylum Confession written by Jack Steen and published by . This book was released on 2020-08-15 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They arrive alive. They leave dead.But first, they give me their confessions.My name is Jack Steen. That name shouldn't mean anything to you. Unless you're about to die. And then I'm your bloody guardian angel. I work as a night nurse in the Asylum for the criminally insane. My name is the only real name you'll find in this book. I won't tell you which hospital I work at. I won't tell you the names of those dying.But I won't lie to you.You'll read exactly what I'm told. If you're smart, if you're deranged enough to read between the lines, you'll know who is telling the story.They could be playing their final game with me by messing with my head. Now, maybe they're messing with yours too.Inside this book are 4 confessions: One has an interesting 'appetite'. One was the Ken to his Barbie, and he would do anything to keep her happy.Another is a Nanny, but not one you want watching your kids.The other is the sweetest soul you'd ever meet but you'll have a hard time reading her confession. WARNING: There is swearing in this book. And some stories might be a trigger for something you have a hard time handling. But, these are the confessions of serial killers, mass murderers and such. NOTE: These once were published as novellas. Now they're in a full length novel. Deal with it.Want to read the next set of Confession books? Sign up for my mailing list - I'm told all the real authors have one, so I figured why not

Download or read book The Illegal A Novel written by Lawrence Hill and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2016-01-25 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A gripping political thriller readers may find hard to put down.”—Dallas Morning News Keita Ali is an elite runner living in Zantoroland, a poor, fictional island that is erupting in political violence. When his father, a journalist, is murdered, Keita escapes to the wealthy nation of Freedom State—an imagined country much like our own. A stateless refugee without documentation, Keita must hide from the authorities even as he races marathons to support himself and ransom his sister who has been kidnapped. This tension-filled novel by the best-selling author of Someone Knows My Name is an astute exploration of dislocation, starting all over again, and the desperate need for home and community.

Download or read book Faith Forward written by Asylum Hill Congregational Church and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Dollhouse Asylum written by Mary Gray and published by . This book was released on 2017-05-02 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A group of teenagers are granted asylum from the apocalypse only to be forced to re-enact famous, tragic literary romances... or die. A novel about escaping psychological abuse. When the world is breaking all someone wants is safety. A virus that had once been contained has returned, and soon no place will be left untouched. But when eighteen-year-old Cheyenne wakes up in Elysian Fields-a subdivision cut off from the world and its monster-creating virus-she is thrilled to have a chance at survival. At first, Elysian Fields-with its beautiful houses and manicured lawns-is perfect. Teo Richardson, the older man who stole her heart, built it so they could be together. But when Teo tells Cheyenne there are tests that she and seven other couples must pass to be worthy of salvation, Cheyenne begins to question the perfection of his world. The people they were before are gone. Cheyenne is now Persephone, and each couple has been re-named to reflect the most tragic romances ever told. Teo dresses them up, tells them when to move and how to act, and in order to pass the test, they must play along. Play it right, then they'll be safe. But play it wrong, they'll die. The Dollhouse Asylum is a fast-paced psychological thriller in the vein of Wayward Pines or The Girl with All the Gifts. If you like unpredictable plots, nightmarish settings, and dangerous love interests, then you'll love Gray's novel about escaping unhealthy love.

Download or read book Committed written by Susan Burch and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2021-02-08 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1902 and 1934, the United States confined hundreds of adults and children from dozens of Native nations at the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians, a federal psychiatric hospital in South Dakota. But detention at the Indian Asylum, as families experienced it, was not the beginning or end of the story. For them, Canton Asylum was one of many places of imposed removal and confinement, including reservations, boarding schools, orphanages, and prison-hospitals. Despite the long reach of institutionalization for those forcibly held at the Asylum, the tenacity of relationships extended within and beyond institutional walls. In this accessible and innovative work, Susan Burch tells the story of the Indigenous people—families, communities, and nations, across generations to the present day—who have experienced the impact of this history.

Download or read book Asylum for Sale written by Siobhán McGuirk and published by PM Press. This book was released on 2020-11-01 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This explosive new volume brings together a lively cast of academics, activists, journalists, artists, and people directly impacted by asylum regimes to explain how current practices of asylum align with the neoliberal moment and to present their transformative visions for alternative systems and processes. Through essays, artworks, photographs, infographics, and illustrations, Asylum for Sale: Profit and Protest in the Migration Industry regards the global asylum regime as an industry characterized by profit-making activity: brokers who facilitate border crossings for a fee; contractors and firms that erect walls, fences, and watchtowers while lobbying governments for bigger “security” budgets; corporations running private detention centers and “managing” deportations; private lawyers charging exorbitant fees; “expert” witnesses; and NGO staff establishing careers while placing asylum seekers into new regimes of monitored vulnerability. Asylum for Sale challenges readers to move beyond questions of legal, moral, and humanitarian obligations that dominate popular debates regarding asylum seekers. Digging deeper, the authors focus on processes and actors often overlooked in mainstream analyses and on the trends increasingly rendering asylum available only to people with financial and cultural capital. Probing every aspect of the asylum process from crossings to aftermaths, the book provides an in-depth exploration of complex, international networks, policies, and norms that impact people seeking asylum around the world. In highlighting protest as well as profit, Asylum for Sale presents both critical analyses and proposed solutions for resisting and reshaping current and emerging immigration norms.

Download or read book Gracefully Insane written by Alex Beam and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2009-07-21 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Its landscaped ground, chosen by Frederick Law Olmsted and dotted with Tudor mansions, could belong to a New England prep school. There are no fences, no guards, no locked gates. But McLean Hospital is a mental institution-one of the most famous, most elite, and once most luxurious in America. McLean "alumni" include Olmsted himself, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, James Taylor and Ray Charles, as well as (more secretly) other notables from among the rich and famous. In its "golden age," McLean provided as genteel an environment for the treatment of mental illness as one could imagine. But the golden age is over, and a downsized, downscale McLean-despite its affiliation with Harvard University-is struggling to stay afloat. Gracefully Insane, by Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam, is a fascinating and emotional biography of McLean Hospital from its founding in 1817 through today. It is filled with stories about patients and doctors: the Ralph Waldo Emerson prot'g' whose brilliance disappeared along with his madness; Anne Sexton's poetry seminar, and many more. The story of McLean is also the story of the hopes and failures of psychology and psychotherapy; of the evolution of attitudes about mental illness, of approaches to treatment, and of the economic pressures that are making McLean-and other institutions like it-relics of a bygone age. This is a compelling and often oddly poignant reading for fans of books like Plath's The Bell Jar and Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted (both inspired by their author's stays at McLean) and for anyone interested in the history of medicine or psychotherapy, or the social history of New England.

Download or read book Night at the Asylum written by Elle Gray and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2021-12-13 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You better watch your back. You better do your best to hide. Because at Whitehorn there are strange forces at play. Someone or something is watching. And the bizarre death within a secured room is only the beginning... Within a short period of time FBI agent Blake Wilder has had to overcome many life altering events. From the relief of discovering the truth of her past and having the reunion she had always dreamed of. To becoming suffocated by the feelings of grief and failure, feelings that nearly resulted in her death. Safe to say, Blake Wilder is far from looking forward to the festivities to come. Blake and her team are summoned to a small town in northern Washington to investigate the mysterious death of a patient at Whitehorn. A case with no prints and no evidence that anyone had entered the victim's room the night of her death. A strangely perplexing and unfathomable death. And the patients and staff at Whitehorn believe that it was the spirit of the woman's boyfriend-a man she'd killed-coming back from the grave to have his revenge. When Blake discovers that the victim is not what she appears to be and the case takes a more shocking turn. Blake finds herself in an inescapable fight, a fight of the ghosts of the girl's past and Blake's very own ghosts of present and future to come. You better watch out. You better hide. Because a night at The Asylum could bring forth a darkness that may lead to an untimely demise.