Asylum Bound

"God! Has it come to this?" Meet Grace, white-haired, with dementia, being admitted to the daunting asylum with an unwelcome introduction from the student nurse. Then Percy, the crystal radio buff, with depression. Here is Harry, the Japanese ex-POW, whose bath-time is a re-living of battles fought and Walter, with the dodgy and less than faithful, girl-friend. What about Tom, who is getting secret signs from both the Newscaster on the BBC as well as the landlady of the local pub, or Betty who won't fit in the coffin, and needs a bit of encouragement? But also meet the very novice student nurse fearfully working on nights, standing there being strangled, not knowing what to do, or trying to come to grips on his first day on the ward with shaving a corpse. Learn about what goes on in the long asylum corridor & how to survive the laws of the asylum jungle. Information comes from the unlikeliest of sources, the Social Club hard drinkers. Asylum Bound is a wild weird walk through the experiences of a student nurse entering the unknown world of the mental "asylum" of the 1970s. It is a bizarre world, a world of terrible extremes. Within this odd place there are Hogarthian characters of varying chaotic hues, some aggressive, some sad, some disturbed and some institutionalised, both patients and staff. It is in this strange world that understanding develops on the origins of psychiatry and its terrible treatments, including lobotomies, E.C.T., insulin shock and even aversion therapy for underwear snatchers. Learning starts about schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, new and frightening conditions that had new and frightening treatments and outcomes. But the asylum is coming to the end of any usefulness it might ever once have had. The patients are leaving, the staff are changing, and, thank God, the abuses are declining. It is a different world from anything experienced before. It is a very new world. It is a life-changing revelation. What started as a novelty, progressed to fascination and was to end in tragedy. It was the start of a long psychiatric nursing career. It is, sadly, all true.

1113967035
Asylum Bound

"God! Has it come to this?" Meet Grace, white-haired, with dementia, being admitted to the daunting asylum with an unwelcome introduction from the student nurse. Then Percy, the crystal radio buff, with depression. Here is Harry, the Japanese ex-POW, whose bath-time is a re-living of battles fought and Walter, with the dodgy and less than faithful, girl-friend. What about Tom, who is getting secret signs from both the Newscaster on the BBC as well as the landlady of the local pub, or Betty who won't fit in the coffin, and needs a bit of encouragement? But also meet the very novice student nurse fearfully working on nights, standing there being strangled, not knowing what to do, or trying to come to grips on his first day on the ward with shaving a corpse. Learn about what goes on in the long asylum corridor & how to survive the laws of the asylum jungle. Information comes from the unlikeliest of sources, the Social Club hard drinkers. Asylum Bound is a wild weird walk through the experiences of a student nurse entering the unknown world of the mental "asylum" of the 1970s. It is a bizarre world, a world of terrible extremes. Within this odd place there are Hogarthian characters of varying chaotic hues, some aggressive, some sad, some disturbed and some institutionalised, both patients and staff. It is in this strange world that understanding develops on the origins of psychiatry and its terrible treatments, including lobotomies, E.C.T., insulin shock and even aversion therapy for underwear snatchers. Learning starts about schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, new and frightening conditions that had new and frightening treatments and outcomes. But the asylum is coming to the end of any usefulness it might ever once have had. The patients are leaving, the staff are changing, and, thank God, the abuses are declining. It is a different world from anything experienced before. It is a very new world. It is a life-changing revelation. What started as a novelty, progressed to fascination and was to end in tragedy. It was the start of a long psychiatric nursing career. It is, sadly, all true.

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Asylum Bound

Asylum Bound

by Stuart Townsend
Asylum Bound

Asylum Bound

by Stuart Townsend

eBook

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Overview

"God! Has it come to this?" Meet Grace, white-haired, with dementia, being admitted to the daunting asylum with an unwelcome introduction from the student nurse. Then Percy, the crystal radio buff, with depression. Here is Harry, the Japanese ex-POW, whose bath-time is a re-living of battles fought and Walter, with the dodgy and less than faithful, girl-friend. What about Tom, who is getting secret signs from both the Newscaster on the BBC as well as the landlady of the local pub, or Betty who won't fit in the coffin, and needs a bit of encouragement? But also meet the very novice student nurse fearfully working on nights, standing there being strangled, not knowing what to do, or trying to come to grips on his first day on the ward with shaving a corpse. Learn about what goes on in the long asylum corridor & how to survive the laws of the asylum jungle. Information comes from the unlikeliest of sources, the Social Club hard drinkers. Asylum Bound is a wild weird walk through the experiences of a student nurse entering the unknown world of the mental "asylum" of the 1970s. It is a bizarre world, a world of terrible extremes. Within this odd place there are Hogarthian characters of varying chaotic hues, some aggressive, some sad, some disturbed and some institutionalised, both patients and staff. It is in this strange world that understanding develops on the origins of psychiatry and its terrible treatments, including lobotomies, E.C.T., insulin shock and even aversion therapy for underwear snatchers. Learning starts about schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, new and frightening conditions that had new and frightening treatments and outcomes. But the asylum is coming to the end of any usefulness it might ever once have had. The patients are leaving, the staff are changing, and, thank God, the abuses are declining. It is a different world from anything experienced before. It is a very new world. It is a life-changing revelation. What started as a novelty, progressed to fascination and was to end in tragedy. It was the start of a long psychiatric nursing career. It is, sadly, all true.


Product Details

BN ID: 2940044229266
Publisher: Stuart Townsend
Publication date: 11/27/2012
Sold by: Smashwords
Format: eBook
File size: 307 KB

About the Author

It's taken me a year - ended my psychiatric career to do it - been living on dog food (if I was lucky) - fingers still sticky from the ink - quills scattered all over the floor – incontinent most of the time from worry - excrement now up to window level. Wife and kids left without me noticing. My mother died; I never blinked. My father cut off his head and fried it in garlic in the hope of attracting my attention; I scarcely looked up from my work. My wife brought armies of lovers to the house. I told them to keep the noise down a bit. My magnum opus has taken eighteen hours of every day for the last year. However, the book is finished, done and printed, in e-version and paperback. It'll take a few copies sold to rid me of the detritus that has built up, but Asylum Bound is told. The mental hospital of the 1970s, with all its disturbance, has been revealed. Now no one can say to me -"you should write a book". Well I have. Asylum Bound is from Amazon. Dare you read what happened? The sad part is – it was true.
Stuart retired from clinical nursing in 2010 after 30 years "at the coal face". He now writes, lectures and bores with equal grace! Living in the UK, he plays bridge, spoils his wife and children, and enjoys a pint down the local pub.
Stuart Townsend is a pen name

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