Bedlam's Door: True Tales of Madness and Hope

by Mark Rubinstein

Overview

Why would a Hungarian man run down a Manhattan street ranting "I'm king of the Puerto Ricans"? What made a physically healthy woman persuade surgeons to operate on her more than a dozen times? How could a man in a straitjacket commit suicide while in a strictly supervised, locked psychiatric ward?

Though these and the other stories in this book read like fiction, each is true.

Former practicing psychiatrist Mark Rubinstein takes readers deep into the world of mental illness. From the chaos of a psychiatric ER to the bowels of a maximum security prison, the stories range from bizarre to poignant and the people from noble to callous.

Bedlam's Door depicts the challenges mental illness poses for patients, families, and health-care professionals and offers hope for the future. Like the case histories in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks, it shows that though every person's story is unique, we are all more alike than different and are linked by our shared human experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781941016237
Publisher:	Thunder Lake Press
Publication date:	09/01/2016
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword Richard C. Simons, MD ix

Preface xi

King of the Puerto Ricans 1

A Helping Hand 19

The Head Doctor 33

Baptism by Fire 55

A Man of Means 81

A Dirty Little Secret 101

Saved by a Cup of Joe 115

When a Patient Knows More Than the Doctor 129

Dr. Boris Papalini 157

Off the Wall 167

The Family and Me 181

Behind Bars 195

A Short Memory 211

A Deeper Cut 223

A Brief Last Word 239

Glossary 243

References 267

Suggested Reading 275

Acknowledgments 279

About the Author 281