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kate_the_bibliophile's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
dgilbreath's review
5.0
Hands down one of the best books I've ever read. I stumbled upon it last week while mindlessly scrolling on my phone. After watching a video about it, I found it incredibly interesting and bought a copy the same day. I started reading it later that afternoon and couldn't put it down. It's a memoir about an author's time in the New York State Psychiatric Institute in the 90s, exploring her mental illness and sharing stories of other women authors with similar experiences in psych wards. It's enlightening, alarming, captivating, and important. While it may not be for everyone, it definitely resonated with me in a way I haven't experienced with any other book. Ever.
bibliomania_express's review
informative
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen by Suzanne Scalon is a fascinating glimpse into the author's experience of being a psychiatric patient in the early 1990s in conversation with literature on mental illness, especially boted works by women. Scanlon writes with clarity and thoughtfulness, expertly weaving literary analysis into her story. Her reflections on the performative nature of institutionalization are measured against her sense of her subjective experiences of depression and isolation.
This book walks a delicate balance between unfettered honesty and a desire for privacy. Scanlon isn't afraid to talk about her family dynamics, sexuality, experience of motherhood and relationships, and the loss of her mother, but she keeps those stories contained to details that pertain to her expeirence of mental illness. Yet her narrative feels undeniably personal.
I enjoyed the way Scanlon's literary analysis and how she understands herself in relation to depictions of madness. Stories shape us through their telling and retelling, and it was interesting to see how Scanlon shapes her story through reading and re-encountering stories and poems, and how her relationship to them changes over time.
I found the writing really engaging, and the short sections made this a fairly quick read. It's well worth a read if you have any interest in the experience of psychiatry in the 1990s, madness in literature, women and mental health.
This book walks a delicate balance between unfettered honesty and a desire for privacy. Scanlon isn't afraid to talk about her family dynamics, sexuality, experience of motherhood and relationships, and the loss of her mother, but she keeps those stories contained to details that pertain to her expeirence of mental illness. Yet her narrative feels undeniably personal.
I enjoyed the way Scanlon's literary analysis and how she understands herself in relation to depictions of madness. Stories shape us through their telling and retelling, and it was interesting to see how Scanlon shapes her story through reading and re-encountering stories and poems, and how her relationship to them changes over time.
I found the writing really engaging, and the short sections made this a fairly quick read. It's well worth a read if you have any interest in the experience of psychiatry in the 1990s, madness in literature, women and mental health.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Death of parent, Cancer, and Grief
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Self harm
Minor: Miscarriage, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Eating disorder
katiejames's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
nova_lumen's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.75
casskrug's review
4.0
absolutely devoured this over the span of about 2 days. that approach could be a bit intense for some readers, but scanlon’s account of her time in and out of the new york state psychiatric institute in the 90s was gripping and propulsive. i can only imagine the amount of self-reflection and sifting through painful memories it must have taken to write this book, but scanlon did it with such simplicity and openness. there is no sugarcoating of the difficulty of the situation she was in, and we see the effects of it even years later, as she navigates life post-hospitalization and becomes a teacher and a mother. also, lots of beautiful writing on the difficulty of mother-daughter relationships within the context of grief and illness that really touched me.
we see her grappling with mental illness and loss at the same time as she is finding herself as a reader and intellectual. the fellow female writers whose work and lives she explores added so much to this book for me - following her journey into feminist literature and how she was able to apply those themes to her own life was relatable and well done, and expanded my reading list. she was able to blend her own experiences with these outside experiences in a way that didn’t feel jarring or jumpy to me. i can see how some may think it’s a fragmentary style, but i was really able to pick up on its flow, reading almost 200 pages in one day.
i do think the book could’ve been edited just a little bit better. some anecdotes were repetitive while other concepts weren’t really explained (thinking of some of the terms she pulls in from erving goffman‘s asylum).
definitely one to pick up if the themes sound at all interesting to you, and looking forward to reading scanlon’s fiction in the future!