Many Forms of Madness: A Family's Struggle with Mental Illness and the Mental Health System

by Rosemary Radford Ruether (Translator)

Overview

In telling the story of her son's thirty-year struggle with schizophrenia, Rosemary Ruether lays bare the inhumane treatment throughout history of people with mental illness. Despite countless reforms by "idealistic reformers" and an enlightened understanding that mental illness is a physical disease like any other, conditions for people who struggle with mental illness are little improved. Ruether asks why this is so and then goes on to imagine what we would do for people with mental illness "if we really cared."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800696511
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	12/03/2009
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Rosemary Radford Ruether was the author of numerous influential works in feminist theology and the history of theology. Her recent works with Fortress Press include the edited volume Feminist Theologies: Legacy and Prospect (2007) and Many Forms of Madness: A Family's Struggle with Mental Illness and the Mental Health System (2010).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1

1 David's Life and Hard and (Sometimes) Good Times 7

2 Symptoms of What? Official Symptoms and David's Experiences 43

3 Causes of Schizophrenia: Mind, Body, or Both Together? 69

4 Treating Persons with Mental Illness: Why Such Poor Treatment? 103

5 Living Arrangements: Recovery or Maintenance? 137

6 What Would We Do if We Really Cared? 163

Notes 191

Index 199