Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton

4 reviews

amachonis's review

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Slavery, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Police brutality, Death, Sexual assault, Murder, and Suicide

lizzie_winn's review

dark fast-paced

5.0

This was ambitious in scope and it did not disappoint! Using oral histories and her own experiences as well as archival sources, Hylton shows how Black Americans with mental health challenges or struggles with poverty or encounters with the police or who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time where institutionalized and pushed to the margins of society. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Sexism, Sexual assault, Classism, Death, Mental illness, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Chronic illness, Police brutality, Slavery, and Violence

moonytoast's review against another edition

emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.5

a must read for those interested in psychology, the history of racialized treatment in the pyschology field and its impact on the current relationship of black people to the mental health system, the connection between mental institutions and the carceral system, and the impact of places like crownsville on everyone who moved through that place. EVERY psychology department at PWIs need to have this book on their curriculum for students to read!!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Sexual assault, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Racism, and Suicide

shereadytoread's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad

5.0

This was such an engrossing read. As someone with family a small drive from Crownville, MD, I've been aware of the existence of Crownville but not the history until now. Once I started reading this, I couldn't put it down. I finished this in less than 24 hours. We tend to think of the past in such a distant way. Crownsville State Hospital closed during my lifetime (probably the lifetime of anyone reading this as well). Interviews with family members of former patients and with former employees, along with historical archives saved at the last minute have culminated in this amazing work. 

It not only tells the history of the asylum but also discusses the history of mental health treatment, institutions and the continued failures of both asylums and community care. It discussed the criminalization of mental health policies and the increased carceral response to poor and mentally ill community members. Something that strikes me most was a portion in which someone interviewed discussed they were running out of time to tell this story as those who lived it were passing away. How much of our lives and history are loss because there is no one to carry the story? What stories are we carrying? I expect that this is a read I will revisit in the futures. 

Disclaimer: I received a free finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, Violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Forced institutionalization, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide

Minor: Sexual assault