What are some books set in a psychiatric hospital?
Has anyone here ever been to one and what was your experience like?
one flew over the cuckoo's nest
also be sure to read the anti-psychiatric works of:
r.d. laing
thomas szasz
david cooper
>>7899564
Could you summarize their views in three lines of greentext please?
>>7899571
r.d. laing
>believed that the behaviors of patients did not reflect a mental disorder but simply were different ways of experiencing and perceiving reality.
david cooper
>coined the phrase "anti-psychiatry." wrote the intro to foucault's madness and civilization. believed that mental disorder were caused by a conflict between a person's actual identity and the social identity they put on for society (see goffman for more on the image of self).
thomas sasz
>argued that mental diseases are not the same as physical diseases. they are made-up byproducts of a society that adheres to conforming to the status quo (he admits to the validity of certain mental diseases but only if they can be proved by hard science to actually exist). if there are no objective means of identifying mental diseases, then they are illusory.
>>7899585
Nice.
>>7899552
The Umbrella, which is a neomodernist work by Will Self.
>>7899552
I've both been in one as a patient and have later dealt with various ones as part of work. The one I was in was pretty mild at the time, since it was just people with issues like anxiety or depression. I was probably the craziest one there, but my issue was a temporary bout of psychosis and I ended up staying for way too long. Mostly you don't really do much and it's a very monotonous place to be.
The ones I've seen during work felt more sketchy and the people there looked more genuinely disturbed. Though I guess that might just be the effect of being someone looking in as opposed to actually being in that position.
Still, they're not places I'd ever want to go back to, on either side.
the Bell Jar
memoirs of my nervous illness is a nonfiction book written by a schizophrenic man...
>>7899636
Are you / were you forced to take drugs / treatments?
>>7899648
Was, while I was in there. There were a couple of times early on when they held me down and injected me with something (a sedative I think) because I was acting completely unhinged (talking in a code that made no sense to anyone, going into other people's rooms without realizing it, etc.). After that they'd give me ambien and risperidone once every night before bed. Treatments other than that were just medical exams, conversations with psychiatrists/other medical staff, and some group therapy type thing.
Once I was out, I just flushed all the pills they gave me to take home straight down the toilet. Since I've apparently passed for sane enough to have been given a job that involves taking care of patients I don't think there was really a long-term need for the pills anyway.
>>7899678
Thanks for responding.
>>7899552
I've been in one. Went in expecting Infinite Jest, but it was more like The Pale King. Where else would you get to meet a sex addict, a cokehead, crackheads, alcoholics and bulimics all under one roof?
That's Not A Feeling by Dan Josefson is pretty great / recent.
>>7899693
Thanks for the recommendation, never heard of this book.
>>7899646
and freud's most infamous patient.
>>7899961
troll? freud only interpreted the book, not the man.
My sister was in the psychiatric ward of the hospital for a month. It's just a bunch of people avoiding life, trying to stay in there for as long as possible. Except one dude seemed legit crazy, just walking around all day mumbling to himself.
>>7899552
My friend was in the mental ward when we were teens. He had some sort of fever which according to doctors went up his brain.
TFW friend sees all sort of dead people and monsters. The details given by him were sometimes too scary. I don't believe in paranormal however, one instance was pretty horrific.
I went to meet him one afternoon. He was playing chess(WTF). I asked him how he was and he replied that can you see the red knight? I said no. he took out a white knight piece dripping in his blood and gave it to me saying, "He is coming for you.". I was like shit WTF dude.
>>7899636
Yeah me too with the psychosis. Was put into a skitz-ville against my will on christmas day when I was 21. I had sex with my gf in there right before she broke up with me a couple of days later. This experience has allowed me to trump anyone in "craziest place you've had sex" stories.
>>7899678
I saved my pills in a box so if I ever feel waves of euphoria where I might consider myself to be in communication and one with god almighty then I will start taking them and hope no one looks me up in the meantime.
>>7900476
locks me up in the meantime*
>>7900061
OP here. This was my intention, though I am fucked mentally. I just want someplace to have some peace and quiet and it's either this or a monastery for me.
I was in the juvenile psych ward of a hospital on suicide watch for a week. It was pleasant overall: they started me on medication lightly, everyone was friendly, food was fine. Gym time was the best; everybody played ping pong or watched. The only bad part was in the middle of my first night, they took blood samples and held me down while they did it. That was bad. Otherwise it was really nice.
The Magic Mountain
Norwegian Wood
>>7900573
The sanatorium in that book is for people with tuberculosis IIRC.
>>7899629
Man, I started reading that one but I had to quit, such a hard book, but since that was more than a year ago I might give it a go once again. Did you have any difficulties with the book or is it just me?
>>7900577
I hated this. I read a translation so I can't critique the prose but the rest of the novel was just so dreadful. Aside from with the main girl, all of the sexual content felt forced and meaningless (especially with the older woman). Maybe it would have been more interesting if I cared about Japanese politics or something, but as it is, it just seemed like a waste of paper, no better than your average YA novel, or masculune chick lit.
Part of Murphy by Beckett.
>>7901044
>all of the sexual content felt forced and meaningless
Welcome to Murakami
>>7901084
Is any of his work better? I've heard that Norwegian Wood isn't his best, but if all of his work features poor sexual content, I can't say I'm too interested in giving him another shot.
>>7901099
It's pretty much there in all of it, but to lesser extents - Norwegian Wood is one of his more grounded, relationship focused works so naturally sexual content is involved a lot, but he has the same style of disconnected, passionless sexual writing in most of his works.
That's not to say that he's not good, he can be, but his sexual writing and his secondary characters are definitely his weaker points.
I'd recommend reading After the Quake if you want a good introduction to him. It's a short story collection, and gives a good flavour of all of his stylistic directions, as well as being one of his better works overall.
I was in one afew months ago for anorexia, noone seemed way crazy mostly depression and anxiety. The nurses weren't mean but they clearly didn't really want to be there or care about the patients The food being totally shit didn't help recovery at all and getting tubes shoved down my nose was a teensy bit traumatic, on the upside not being allowed my phone or the internet for afew weeks gave me an opportunity to read shitloads.
>>7901106
Alright, I'll check check that out. There's something about passionless sexual content that makes me really uneasy, but he's popular and I guess influential, so I want to understand him to some extent.
As far as the portrayal of a mental health institution goes, Norwegain Wood was alright, although it certainly didn't deal with an ordinary facility. However, I would rather see works like NW popular than some other more famous works on mental healthcare, because at least it doesn't portray the system as some sort of abusive nightmare. Granted, most of the more famous works are older and were likely accurate representations at the time, but their continued popularity is really damaging, and frightens people away from receiving the help they need.
>>7900476
I never bothered keeping mine because at that intensity it was a one-time thing brought on by unique circumstances (persistent sleep deprivation and dehydration).
>>7900545
It won't feel like peace and quiet once you're in there though. It'll just feel like you're stuck in this boring place for x amount of days. I really wouldn't recommend it unless you can spring for one of the fancier ones, and even then just taking a quiet stroll outside for an hour or two a day will probably feel better overall.
>>7901117
L O N D O N
This book is quite good. It's about an alcoholic who goes to an insane asylum to sober up. This is the guy who did Gonzo journalism before Hunter S. Thompson.
>>7901301
I should mention this isn't a novel. It's the authors actual experiences and it's a great book about addiction, and honest self-reflection.
I'm a med student right now and I do some clinical "work" in a psych ward in a state hospital.
it's mostly poor people (I'm from a major city, so poor = black) and people who can't afford a nicer hospital.
it's alright just made me really racist
>>7900545
So, here's the thing: you will basically require psych meds when you're there, and they will fuck with your head. Then you'll hit the point where you realize that you have basically signed away your credibility to discern your own state of being/reality/right to self, and if you try to explain that you "just needed a break," they will not believe you. You're the patient. They're the doctor. Even if you voluntarily admit yourself - you are the patient. They are the doctor. You think you'll be able to handle this, and they'll know somehow that you're "really sane." They will not. Because you are not. You checked yourself into a mental ward, so there must be *something* wrong. After all, *you* are the patient. *They* are the doctor. And you will be reminded of this. Every. Day. Then you will realize the fragility of the social construction of "sanity" (I mean *really* understand it, not just in that "sure, everybody's crazy in *some* way..." sort of half-assed concession to perspectivalism sort of way) and you'll have a pretty fucking harrowing time of it afterward.
Dunno. I could be wrong. But I'd go with the monastery.
I can't recommend any books based in psychiatric hospitals but I did just leave one and was formally discharged today after three months detainment. Your experience will depend what kind of ward you're on. I was just in a suicidal pack. Violent patients are always housed in separate wards under stricter supervision. People are quiet and sad, often old and often with chronic, debilitating physical illness. It used to be a beautiful Victorian red-brick building with it's own farmland and livestock but was replaced with a pale white toy thing three years ago. All very transient now and the nurses treat you like it too.
There's loads of really good fanfiction about it all just being the mc's craazzy dream.
It'd recommend starting there, then moving from entry level asylum fic into Cuckoo's Nest, then Freudian case studies and finally Lacan.
Harry Potter
>>7899961
freud was a hack
>>7900545
you're pretty stupid, do you actually understand what being in a monastery or a psych ward really means? take a couple of days off
>>7900061
>legit crazy
>>7899553
/thread
Ward No. 6 by Chekhov is a bretty gud short story pertaining to psychiatric hospitals, check it out OP.
>>7899552
It looks tinfoil hatty, but a lot of it is research into MKULTRA and CIA funding of Psychiatrists, especially ones working for state hospitals, and the extra-legal experimentation upon the insane.
>>7899552
>mother gets admitted into dual-diagnosis units for depression/alcoholism
>go to visit her expecting the worst due to my reading stuff like in this thread
>its basically a locked dorm with a bunch of really pathetic tumblr cutter types who talk about heroin all day, white trash, and my super proper mom for whom the experience basically embarrassed her into sobriety and taking meds.
Been depressed since forever. Go through bouts of anxiety, agoraphobia, self harming, disassociation, extreme social withdrawal, substance abuse, this thing where I just cannot talk no matter how hard i try, minor psychotic episodes that last maybe a few hours of me babbling to myself. Hasn't gotten better but I've learned to live and cope with it better. Recently admitted all this shit to a friend in real life. Really scared that going to a doctor will get me in a ward or on some sketchy meds and I'll lose my shit permanently. Is it worth seeing someone?
>>7903478
Is it a well-funded hospital or a moderate to high priced private facility? You usually only get the real crazies in shitty inner-city hospital psych wards.
>>7903498
Probably shitty backwoods hospitals in bumfuck Iwoa or something too now that I think about it.
>>7899552
The Three Christs of Ypsilanti
>>7903506
Yeah, that's the type of place that mostly deals with meme-depressed middle class tumblrites whose parents can afford the expenses.
Can't believe no one's mentioned DFW's anonymous essay / piece on his experience with mental health institutions.
>>7899552
which is this thing, duh. Say what you li
https://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/a-letter-from-david-foster-wallace-maybe/
