Reviews for The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic

The average rating for The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-12-15 00:00:00 James Webb 3.5 Willard, a state institution in upstate New York was part of the self sufficient institutions that sparing up in the late 1800's. They existed by using patient labor to supply all their own needs. Once patient labor became illegal these huge institutions closed one by one. Over five hundred suitcases were left in the attic of Willard, possessions left by former patients and that is how this story came to be. The author provides and overview of Willard, state institutions in general , what brought patients here, how psychiatric services were at the time, dismal and often cruel. Many entered and few left, either they died or the stayed until they were old. The longest I think was seventy five years. Few knew these people, few had visitors and most of them died totally unknown. Sad, depressing it took very little to be committed, many situational sadness but even when well were not released, and in truth many has nowhere to go of they were. The suitcases and the lives investigated in a random selection at least made a few of these unfortunates known. We learn about their lives, what bought them here, what they were diagnosed with and their ending fates. We learn their names, these invisible souls who existed but died leaving little trace that they had ever been here. Incredible. At the end the author asks if things are better now? I have my own opinions as I am sure many do. We do have better treatments, drugs, but still so little is about the human mind and so much of psychiatry is a try and observe type of scenario. Stigma still attached to mental illness is sometimes fierce. But I am glad to have read this, to at least know in a little way some of the unknown.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-07-17 00:00:00 Denis Mercier This book had such potential. Willard was a state psychiatric hospital in the Finger Lakes region of New York that only recently closed. The suitcases of people who died or left without family were catalogued and studied in hopes of learning more about their owners - especially to try to gain insight into the lives they led prior to their psychiatric admission. Last names were changed to protect privacy - except if one looks at the multiple pictures included, several actual names can be seen. So much for valuing patient rights and privacy, as the authors purport to do. The book also looks to expose the abuses of the psychiatric system - both historical and recent. I think the former is done with much more success than the latter. Although the authors attempt to raise questions about the modern psychiatric system, as someone who has worked within the psychiatric system, I can't help but feel that while the system is far, FAR from perfect, the book unfairly vilifies it almost to a point of irresponsibility: Suggesting that modern anti-psychotics have nearly no proven benefits goes against everything I have seen first-hand, as well as what I have heard from both families of people with mental illness AND those living with mental illness. Are the meds perfect? No! But to suggest there is NO proven benefit makes me question what sources they are using. I feel if they had focused more on the historical abuses, this book would have been much stronger.