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Is There No Place on Earth for Me? by Sheehan, Susan (2014) Paperback
"Sylvia Frumkin," a highly intelligent young girl, became a schizophrenic in her late teens and spent most of the next seventeen years in and out of mental institutions. Susan Sheehan, a talented reporter, followed "Sylvia" for almost a year talking with and observing her, listening to her monologues, sitting in on consultations with doctors - even for a period sleeping in the bed next to her in a psychiatric hospital.
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First published April 1, 1982
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December 4, 2023
من عاشق کتاب شدم، این کتاب خیلی خفن تر از اون چیزی هست که فکرشو میکردم. کتاب داستان زندگی یه دختر جوانی هست که اسکیزوفرنی دارد. مو به مو و جزئیات زندگی این دختر و بیماریش رو توضیح داده. کتاب جوری نوشته شده که حتی منی که اسکیزوفرنی ندارم و آشنایتی با این دختر ندارم، کاملا اون رو درک میکنم و میفهممش، تمام علائم بیماری رو مو به مو و جوری که بیماری در زندگیش تأثیر گذاشته رو همه رو گفته جوری که عمق گفته های نویسنده رو کامل میتونی درک کنی، کتاب جذاب، خوانا و برای کسانی که علاقه به روانشناسی و بیماری هاش و زندگی های اون ها دارند عاشق این کتاب خواهند شد. الکی نبوده که نویسنده برای نوشتن مقاله اولیه جایزه پولیتزر رو گرفته و بعد مقاله رو کتاب کرده.
August 12, 2020
Just SO good.
Imagine being passionate and brave enough to say - “Think I’ll spend a year of my life just following a woman with schizophrenia wherever she goes; staying in the psych hospital with her as people bite and scream all night, watching the effects of major tranquilizers, living in her dysfunctional as hell family when she’s not hospitalized...you know, Fun!”
I first read this book when I was an Internal Medicine resident at Mount Sinai in New York and had a one year old child. That’s how riveting this story is; that wasn’t a year with a lot of free reading time.
Schizophrenia is a horrible, terrifying disease. Imagine how frightening it would be to hear voices that aren’t real, have (involuntary) hallucinations; visions and people and touch that aren’t seen, or felt, by anyone else, to be neurologically incapable of feeling pleasure. It is no wonder that now, with our previous accepted reality being inside-out, people are more anxious, more depressed, more ‘crazy’. What if nothing about your reality could be depended on? Like ever? Yeah, that’s schizophrenia.
At one point when she is improving - perhaps because of medication, perhaps not - she waxes about her difficulty deciding whether to marry Paul McCartney or Mick Jagger:
“You know, it was fun believing some of those things I believed, and in a way, I hate to give up those beliefs. I’ll miss having those fantasies. There’s a charm to being sick. I like to be in the twilight zone of the real world. Absolutely real is getting up every day and going to work...When you know all those things exist for other people but not for you, sometimes it’s very hard to endure the not having.”
About her grandiosity, one of her many psychiatrists says:
“...she has such a high intelligence coupled with her grandiosity. If you see yourself going from defeat to defeat, and the next awesome chasm presents itself and you can’t cross it, maybe you stick with grandiosity in your head instead of facing up to your homeliness and awkwardness and limitations. I think she’s genius at being insane.”
About 10 years after this book was published, Ms. Sheehan wrote the end of “Sylvia’s” story in the February 20 & 27, 1995 New Yorker. I tore it out and taped it inside the book, but never got around to reading “The Last Days of Sylvia Frumkin” until now, after my second reading of the book.
*Sigh*.
If you have any interest in mental disease, our society’s completely inadequate ability to heal, and appreciate a subtle, penetrating passion for telling the truth, read this book.
Imagine being passionate and brave enough to say - “Think I’ll spend a year of my life just following a woman with schizophrenia wherever she goes; staying in the psych hospital with her as people bite and scream all night, watching the effects of major tranquilizers, living in her dysfunctional as hell family when she’s not hospitalized...you know, Fun!”
I first read this book when I was an Internal Medicine resident at Mount Sinai in New York and had a one year old child. That’s how riveting this story is; that wasn’t a year with a lot of free reading time.
Schizophrenia is a horrible, terrifying disease. Imagine how frightening it would be to hear voices that aren’t real, have (involuntary) hallucinations; visions and people and touch that aren’t seen, or felt, by anyone else, to be neurologically incapable of feeling pleasure. It is no wonder that now, with our previous accepted reality being inside-out, people are more anxious, more depressed, more ‘crazy’. What if nothing about your reality could be depended on? Like ever? Yeah, that’s schizophrenia.
At one point when she is improving - perhaps because of medication, perhaps not - she waxes about her difficulty deciding whether to marry Paul McCartney or Mick Jagger:
“You know, it was fun believing some of those things I believed, and in a way, I hate to give up those beliefs. I’ll miss having those fantasies. There’s a charm to being sick. I like to be in the twilight zone of the real world. Absolutely real is getting up every day and going to work...When you know all those things exist for other people but not for you, sometimes it’s very hard to endure the not having.”
About her grandiosity, one of her many psychiatrists says:
“...she has such a high intelligence coupled with her grandiosity. If you see yourself going from defeat to defeat, and the next awesome chasm presents itself and you can’t cross it, maybe you stick with grandiosity in your head instead of facing up to your homeliness and awkwardness and limitations. I think she’s genius at being insane.”
About 10 years after this book was published, Ms. Sheehan wrote the end of “Sylvia’s” story in the February 20 & 27, 1995 New Yorker. I tore it out and taped it inside the book, but never got around to reading “The Last Days of Sylvia Frumkin” until now, after my second reading of the book.
*Sigh*.
If you have any interest in mental disease, our society’s completely inadequate ability to heal, and appreciate a subtle, penetrating passion for telling the truth, read this book.
July 10, 2018
I confess I first approached this book with a voyeur's curiosity. The foreward, written by psychiatrist Robert Coles, Ph.D., quickly upbraided me for seeking titillation and thrills with its firm reminder that patients in psychiatric care are human beings:
This is a well-written expose which the passing of time has turned into a historical study, an account of a time when the DSM-III was the standard for diagnosing mental illness, a time when mental health facilities had just begun moving towards treatment and rehabilitation over incarceration and their practices didn't quite line up with their new philosophies. In thorough journalistic style, Sheehan chronicles the state of American psychiatric care in the 1960s and 70s, pulling in details of the socioeconomic, racial, and medical factors that contributed to where a single patient, Miss Sylvia Frumkin, a paranoid schizophrenic in the unfortunate minority of patients deemed "treatment resistant," finds herself. But Sheehan is committed to looking beyond the labels and capturing the essence of the person they might otherwise overshadow and obscure. It is a fascinating and especially vivid account of the history and development of modern psychiatry and mental health treatment.
"Do you know what it's like to keep coming back here?" Miss Frumkin cries out during an intake interview, her fourth of the year 1978 alone. "What torture it is to be sent through the revolving door again and again? The pain, the suffering, do you know how it hurts?" (26)
The pathos of observing an imbalanced mind is tempered by Sheehan's capable writing, which explains technical terminology with rapid ease and is salted throughout with shades of smirking humor ("In psychiatry, simple words are never used where complicated ones will do." [28] "Building N/4 was opened in 1932. It is a grimy building that appears at first glance not to have aged well, a bulding of which one might say that it had seen better days — unless one chanced upon a photograph of N/4 taken the year it opened. One would then have to say that it was a building that had had no better days." [38])
3 stars. While the human drama is captivating, the story gets bogged down with minutiae that drag the pace down (descriptions of buildings down to the room dimensions, minute-by-minute accounts of staff members' comings and goings, precise dosages of various medications, and so on, are repeated throughout). Sheehan takes almost too professional a journalistic approach, with the "who, what, where, when, why and how" covered so thoroughly they become kind of numbing. Overall, though, this book leaves you with a lot to think about after you put it down.
Miss Frumkin turns out to be an extremely troubled person whose mind doesn't work, in certain respects, the way most other minds work. The labels psychiatrists use to set Miss Frumkin apart, the diagnostic classifications applied to her, are merely matters of medical convenience — or should be...She speaks strange thoughts. She behaves oddly. If many of us scratch our heads and dismiss her as peculiar, as unbalanced, as worthy of confinement, we will soon enough meet one, then another person who is similarly afflicted...The issue, then, is clearly the pain and confusion felt by millions of Sylvia Frumkins. It is the aimlessness, melancholy, want of confidence, irresolution, misgivings of all sorts, alarm, terror, and moments of outright panic that torment them.
This is a well-written expose which the passing of time has turned into a historical study, an account of a time when the DSM-III was the standard for diagnosing mental illness, a time when mental health facilities had just begun moving towards treatment and rehabilitation over incarceration and their practices didn't quite line up with their new philosophies. In thorough journalistic style, Sheehan chronicles the state of American psychiatric care in the 1960s and 70s, pulling in details of the socioeconomic, racial, and medical factors that contributed to where a single patient, Miss Sylvia Frumkin, a paranoid schizophrenic in the unfortunate minority of patients deemed "treatment resistant," finds herself. But Sheehan is committed to looking beyond the labels and capturing the essence of the person they might otherwise overshadow and obscure. It is a fascinating and especially vivid account of the history and development of modern psychiatry and mental health treatment.
"Do you know what it's like to keep coming back here?" Miss Frumkin cries out during an intake interview, her fourth of the year 1978 alone. "What torture it is to be sent through the revolving door again and again? The pain, the suffering, do you know how it hurts?" (26)
The pathos of observing an imbalanced mind is tempered by Sheehan's capable writing, which explains technical terminology with rapid ease and is salted throughout with shades of smirking humor ("In psychiatry, simple words are never used where complicated ones will do." [28] "Building N/4 was opened in 1932. It is a grimy building that appears at first glance not to have aged well, a bulding of which one might say that it had seen better days — unless one chanced upon a photograph of N/4 taken the year it opened. One would then have to say that it was a building that had had no better days." [38])
3 stars. While the human drama is captivating, the story gets bogged down with minutiae that drag the pace down (descriptions of buildings down to the room dimensions, minute-by-minute accounts of staff members' comings and goings, precise dosages of various medications, and so on, are repeated throughout). Sheehan takes almost too professional a journalistic approach, with the "who, what, where, when, why and how" covered so thoroughly they become kind of numbing. Overall, though, this book leaves you with a lot to think about after you put it down.
November 24, 2009
Susan Sheehan (journalist) made a study in the 1980s of Sylvia Frumkin, a mental patient diagnosed with schizophrenia who was hospitalized multiple times at various locations in and around New York. She spent most of her later teenage years (1970s) and early adulthood in and out of hospitals, dealing with auditory hallucinations, disorganized thoughts, violent and anti-social behaviors, and a host of other problems brought on by her illness. Sheehan interviewed the patient (Miss Frumkin), family members (her parents and sister, Joyce), Sylvia’s doctors, therapists, psychiatrists, and others whose lives were touched by her illness in order to create this portrait of Sylvia and the mental hospital environment at that time.
Sheehan paints a picture of a chaotic and largely disorganized system (not unlike Sylvia’s illness). The state mental hospitals (like Creedmoor) were largely overpopulated and under-staffed. It was difficult to give patients the attention or care that they needed (and in some cases craved). Most of the doctors were foreign-born and educated and there were cultural and language barriers between them and their patients. Prevailing practices and attitudes regarding the medication of patients were to put patients on several different medications at a time, and then wean them off of them as their symptoms/psychoses improved (or if side-effects became too uncomfortable). Because doctors didn’t really understand how the medications worked, and because the individual metabolisms and physiologies of their patients meant they worked differently for everyone (and often differently at different times over patients’ lifetimes), this was sort of a crapshoot. In Sylvia’s case, these practices probably made her illness worse – doctors didn’t know or bother to become familiar with her case history, she wasn’t given enough of medications to actually control her symptoms, and life on the ward (and at home) was incredibly stressful for her. Sylvia is often described as “pesty” and “irritating” by those who knew her, and she often resorted to violence when she was frustrated. When she was able to control these impulses, she could be quite affable and charming, and she struck people as being particularly bright. In an afterword, Susan Sheehan writes that after publication of this book, Sylvia’s condition improved and she was able to go home to live. It’s difficult to believe that this period of wellness lasted any longer than others, but publicity after publication brought her to the attention of a prominent psychiatrist, who took on her case personally, so perhaps she’s finally receiving the care (and attention) she needs.
I’m still mystified by the workings of schizophrenia, which seems to be a catch-all for various mental illnesses that can’t be classified elsewhere, but which share certain similarities. I think the hardest thing to come to terms with (both for me and for psychiatrists during Sylvia’s time) is that schizophrenia can’t be cured. It can only be treated. The “bad” behavior of schizophrenics seems like something that an ordinary person could easily control – the impulses, the violence, the acting out. Why is it that some people are overwhelmed by these things and other “normal” people can deal with the same stresses and not have a psychotic break? There was one point where Sylvia really seemed to understand what was going on in her life – when she was seeing a therapist (a young woman, to whom she could relate) who understood her problems, was honest with her, and was able to get her to work on being her own individual person. Other doctors seemed to think they could improve her condition solely by throwing drugs at it (and then never enough medication to actually help her). Part of me wonders whether Sylvia was just a self-indulgent, irritating pip who never learned to deal with the strength of her emotions. Is that all that mental illness is? Or was she seriously crippled by a chemical imbalance (dopamine uptake deficiency)? After reading this, I’d like to find something more recent that gets into the whys and hows of schizophrenia. I hope some progress has been made since the 1980s.
Sheehan paints a picture of a chaotic and largely disorganized system (not unlike Sylvia’s illness). The state mental hospitals (like Creedmoor) were largely overpopulated and under-staffed. It was difficult to give patients the attention or care that they needed (and in some cases craved). Most of the doctors were foreign-born and educated and there were cultural and language barriers between them and their patients. Prevailing practices and attitudes regarding the medication of patients were to put patients on several different medications at a time, and then wean them off of them as their symptoms/psychoses improved (or if side-effects became too uncomfortable). Because doctors didn’t really understand how the medications worked, and because the individual metabolisms and physiologies of their patients meant they worked differently for everyone (and often differently at different times over patients’ lifetimes), this was sort of a crapshoot. In Sylvia’s case, these practices probably made her illness worse – doctors didn’t know or bother to become familiar with her case history, she wasn’t given enough of medications to actually control her symptoms, and life on the ward (and at home) was incredibly stressful for her. Sylvia is often described as “pesty” and “irritating” by those who knew her, and she often resorted to violence when she was frustrated. When she was able to control these impulses, she could be quite affable and charming, and she struck people as being particularly bright. In an afterword, Susan Sheehan writes that after publication of this book, Sylvia’s condition improved and she was able to go home to live. It’s difficult to believe that this period of wellness lasted any longer than others, but publicity after publication brought her to the attention of a prominent psychiatrist, who took on her case personally, so perhaps she’s finally receiving the care (and attention) she needs.
I’m still mystified by the workings of schizophrenia, which seems to be a catch-all for various mental illnesses that can’t be classified elsewhere, but which share certain similarities. I think the hardest thing to come to terms with (both for me and for psychiatrists during Sylvia’s time) is that schizophrenia can’t be cured. It can only be treated. The “bad” behavior of schizophrenics seems like something that an ordinary person could easily control – the impulses, the violence, the acting out. Why is it that some people are overwhelmed by these things and other “normal” people can deal with the same stresses and not have a psychotic break? There was one point where Sylvia really seemed to understand what was going on in her life – when she was seeing a therapist (a young woman, to whom she could relate) who understood her problems, was honest with her, and was able to get her to work on being her own individual person. Other doctors seemed to think they could improve her condition solely by throwing drugs at it (and then never enough medication to actually help her). Part of me wonders whether Sylvia was just a self-indulgent, irritating pip who never learned to deal with the strength of her emotions. Is that all that mental illness is? Or was she seriously crippled by a chemical imbalance (dopamine uptake deficiency)? After reading this, I’d like to find something more recent that gets into the whys and hows of schizophrenia. I hope some progress has been made since the 1980s.
March 10, 2024
The heartbreaking true story of a young woman with schizophrenia in New York City in the late 20th Century and how everything failed for her, psychopharmacology, hospitalization, community programs, her family, government mandates, everything.
This is the sad truth for people with this type of mental illness. There is still nothing we can do for many of them.
I have known four people myself who have suffered from this disorder. As far as I am aware, there has not been a happy outcome for any of them.
This is the sad truth for people with this type of mental illness. There is still nothing we can do for many of them.
I have known four people myself who have suffered from this disorder. As far as I am aware, there has not been a happy outcome for any of them.
May 31, 2025
She never found a place on earth for her :((( I feel like I learned a lot about mental illness from this book. I hope everyone’s ok and that we start giving more money to psychiatric hospitals 🏥
October 29, 2008
Excellent inside look at how and why the system often fails the mentally and emotionally disturbed people it's suppose to be helping. Sylvia was shuffled in and out of facilities, her medication was changed almost every time she entered a new facility. So many of these doctors basically threw a dart blindly at the question of medication. Only one doctor ever took the time to read her treatment history to properly assess her medication needs. I felt pity for her parents and her sister. Although I also believe Sylvia's parents made alot of the situations worse, I understand that caring for an emotionally unstable adult who is violent and unable to comprehend logic and reason is often times impossible and sometimes you get fed up and make wrong decisions. No one can be expected to always handle volatile situations the right way. I pitied Sylvia, and I hated her at times and then immediately felt guilty for hating her, knowing she really couldn't help her actions, but mostly, I wanted Sylvia to get help. I wanted just one person in the mental health system to take the time to figure out her best course of treatment and not throw up their hands and say they can't help and pawn her off on the next facility. I found many decisions by the mental health facilities to be grossly irresponsible. I hope Sylvia eventually got the help she needed.
June 30, 2011
This was a poignant picture of the Mental Health system in the late '70s and early '80s. A young girl and her family struggle with schizophrenia. How she was misdiagnosed and not treated correctly. The stigmatism that comes with mental health. It hits close to home, having a brother who has a mental health disease and spent much of his young adult life in a State Hospital. Hopefully, the mental health system has corrected the problems that occurred in that time. I still see people with mental health diseases slipping through the system even today. I see poly-pharmacy in the practice of treating mental health illnesses today. It is one of my biggest battles as pharmacist. I still think there is a long way to go in treating people with mental health illnesses and the mental health system and the way medications are used to treat mental health illnesses.
March 4, 2017
Marvelously researched and riveting from start to finish. They don't make nonfiction like this anymore. A gripping and heart-rending portrayal of one woman's nearly lifelong struggle with schizophrenia.
September 3, 2022
3.5 stars!
This should be essential reading for all mental
health professionals, and, thinking about it, all medical professionals too. I’m a psychologist and this personal account has been eye-opening for me too. It’s been educational, insightful and heart-wrenching. It’s also a great insight into the history of psychiatry and pharmacology in the US over much of the last century!
What a book!
As you’re probably aware, the book follows Sylvia’s life.
Throughout the book, you can see how she never had a chance of a normal life: a medical system that kept failing her, a dysfunctional family, inconsistent support and one of the most difficult to treat mental disorders, Schizophrenia.
My one criticism is that it’s quite long-winded and wordy, and could have done with editing to about half its length (in doing so, gaining clarity, rather than losing meaning) -
due to the (unnecessary) length, and some jumps between times/dates that got slightly confusing, I’d give it a 3.5/5.
This should be essential reading for all mental
health professionals, and, thinking about it, all medical professionals too. I’m a psychologist and this personal account has been eye-opening for me too. It’s been educational, insightful and heart-wrenching. It’s also a great insight into the history of psychiatry and pharmacology in the US over much of the last century!
What a book!
As you’re probably aware, the book follows Sylvia’s life.
Throughout the book, you can see how she never had a chance of a normal life: a medical system that kept failing her, a dysfunctional family, inconsistent support and one of the most difficult to treat mental disorders, Schizophrenia.
My one criticism is that it’s quite long-winded and wordy, and could have done with editing to about half its length (in doing so, gaining clarity, rather than losing meaning) -
due to the (unnecessary) length, and some jumps between times/dates that got slightly confusing, I’d give it a 3.5/5.
August 17, 2011
It was interesting to look at psychiatric treatment and how ideas about inpatient versus outpatient treatment evolved with the introduction of newer antipsychotics. The main character's experience of constantly going in and out of hospitals is still a problem that lasts today despite newer atypicals. I do wish the author had put the story in chronological order as it got rather confusing when the story started at a certain point and then went back in time and then went forward again. Also, I wish the author had added a piece that described how she got involved with this patient especially given how closely she was following. I was really interested in that aspect of the book and her experiences and I thought it merited a mention even if it wasn't the focus of the book. However, it really wasn't brought up at all.
May 20, 2024
Based on a real person, the author journals the present and past circumstances of schizophrenic patient “Sylvia Frumkin”. I liked that this book explored various factors that accelerated the decline of Frumkin’s mental health- from sociological to psychological and biological. Reading this helped me to shift my perspective to approaching bizarre public behaviours with empathy.
August 21, 2019
This is a good piece of journalism, I just don't personally care for a journalistic take on the life of a mentally ill person. Obviously Maxine Mason consented to this publication and, according to Sheehan, seemed happy with it, but the third-person perspective with a completely obscured narrator was just bizarre. It is a very honest look at her life and the conditions which she lived in, which I appreciate, but I did not find it empathetic by any means. It consistently focuses on the violence of the patients towards each other and the staff; while I'm sure this violence did occur, focusing on it so frequently and with such evocative language can only paint these patients in a negative and stereotyped light. And despite Sheehan's claim at the end that Maxine was as brilliant and bright as she was overbearing, rude, difficult, etc., I did not get that sense from this book at all. The incessant descriptions of her weight and eating habits were genuinely infuriating. Sheehan is OBSESSED with weight and mentions the weight of nearly every single patient, often attaching morals to it (wherein skinny = good and fat = bad, of course). It was so bizarre and unrelated to literally anything. Not to mention that her idea of obesity is truly absurd, calling Sylvia excessively overweight at 150-170 lbs for her height. Just ridiculous mentioning it at all, not to mention at such lengths and with such a low bar for what is "morbidly obese."
I'm sure that this book made some people sympathetic towards the plight of those who were institutionalized and, mainly as a result of poor treatment, remained so for the duration of their lives. In that sense, I'm glad this book was written. However, the above two points grated far too much on my nerves to enjoy it. The prose was fine, the general structure and subject matter was fine, but I would much prefer to read something where the mentally ill person who is the subject of the book has more control and say over their own portrayal and life story.
I'm sure that this book made some people sympathetic towards the plight of those who were institutionalized and, mainly as a result of poor treatment, remained so for the duration of their lives. In that sense, I'm glad this book was written. However, the above two points grated far too much on my nerves to enjoy it. The prose was fine, the general structure and subject matter was fine, but I would much prefer to read something where the mentally ill person who is the subject of the book has more control and say over their own portrayal and life story.
June 23, 2017
Clear a spot on your calendar because this book will completely absorb you for 48 hours! A writer follows the frustrating and jagged path of a schizophrenic woman through the New York mental health system over decades. Originally appearing as serial articles, the text was never given a vigorous re-edit, so the chronology is a little confusing. However, I think this enhances the merry-go-round heartbreak of this woman's life: institutional admissions, bad drug therapy, huffy exits, broken beginnings, failed ventures, and exasperated family. The family in this case is thankful to push for more openness about the nature and social responses to mental illness. If you have anyone in your life who ever struggled to stay mentally healthy for any reason, you should read this book.
z-did-not-finish
May 14, 2020[1982] Another one for the DNF shelf. It's time. It's been on my shelf since I started it in August of 2017 and got about 125 pages in. The material is right up my alley, and it's a great piece of journalistic writing, but ultimately it was just too detailed. It's a super thorough case study, but there was just too much minutiae for me to want to stick with it for another 200 pages.
July 6, 2024
This was a hard one to rate and review! I feel mean giving it only 2 stars, as it is very well written, and was probably quite groundbreaking at the time it was published in 1982: It tells, in great detail, the story of Sylvia Frumkin (not her real name), and her experiences in and out of mental health institutions as she struggles with schizophrenia. It's a very important story to tell as it sheds a light on how challenging a condition like schizophrenia can be, both for the people who have it, and the medical staff trying to manage it. Sylvia was frequently undermedicated and misdiagnosed, and I felt very sorry for her and her family. But... It took me a very long time to read this book, and I set it aside several times, once for over a month. The level of detail and minutiae about Sylvia's life,and her experiences in various medical facilities became extremely repetitious and wore me down. I usually give up on a book if I'm not enjoying it after 50 pages, and I've no idea why I persisted with this one! Maybe because it won the Pulitzer Prize? Maybe because the author David Sedaris recommended it so highly? Who knows! So, my 2 star rating is mainly a reflection of how I felt reading it.
March 26, 2024
"Is There No Place For Me?" delves into Sylvia Frumkin's journey through mental illness, highlighting the intricate interplay of genetic predispositions, environmental stressors, and social dynamics in shaping her experiences. The book compellingly portrays the challenges faced by individuals navigating mental health systems, emphasizing the critical need for early intervention, holistic support systems, and destigmatization of psychiatric disorders. Through Sylvia's story, readers are prompted to reflect on the complexities of mental health care, the significance of inclusive communities, and the ongoing pursuit of humane and effective treatment approaches.
The narrative skillfully navigates Sylvia's treatments, including pharmaceutical interventions and community-based programs, showcasing both successes and setbacks in her quest for stability. While acknowledging the strides in deinstitutionalization and the rise of community-focused care, the book also underscores the gaps that persist, particularly in providing intensive support for individuals with severe mental illness. Overall, "Is There No Place For Me?" offers a poignant and thought-provoking exploration of mental health challenges, treatment modalities, and the evolving landscape of psychiatric care.
The narrative skillfully navigates Sylvia's treatments, including pharmaceutical interventions and community-based programs, showcasing both successes and setbacks in her quest for stability. While acknowledging the strides in deinstitutionalization and the rise of community-focused care, the book also underscores the gaps that persist, particularly in providing intensive support for individuals with severe mental illness. Overall, "Is There No Place For Me?" offers a poignant and thought-provoking exploration of mental health challenges, treatment modalities, and the evolving landscape of psychiatric care.
February 3, 2023
When I first started this book I was critical of the writing style which finally makes sense 1/3 the way in . It’s one of those stories laid out to fall under your “ I cannot get too sad from this “ radar . This should be required reading in all high school to help us empathize more . Treatment rest start schizophrenia is not something I had realized was so large in numbers . This was a really honest look at how families are forever affected by mental illness.
The greatest loss of human potential is through
mental illness .
The lengths to which this author went to catch all the details of this woman’s life are beyond belief .
When you put off doing something you want to do in your life do it for Maxine who was never able to reach much less attempt her potential .
The greatest loss of human potential is through
mental illness .
The lengths to which this author went to catch all the details of this woman’s life are beyond belief .
When you put off doing something you want to do in your life do it for Maxine who was never able to reach much less attempt her potential .
October 30, 2017
This is a detailed account of a bright but unfortunate schizophrenic. Like many other stories about people with this mental illness, this one is very uncomfortable to read and reminds us very much of what we, as more mentally well-off human beings, all take for granted. Perhaps what is the most unsettling for me to see is how most of the psychiatrists, therapists, and high professionals in this field were so confused, inconsistent, and insensitive in dealing with schizophrenic patients who were unresponsive to medications like Sylvia. It is also troubling that very few of them did spend any time to consider the patient’s medical history before writing off an prescription that often repeated the ones that did little help. Moreover, a great deal of this book presents how dull and horrible life could get in a mental hospital in the 60s and 70s and how much a psychological and financial strain it sucked from a family to have a child/adult with schizophrenia. This is a sad story to learn and it makes it hard to forget the devastating seriousness of this mental illness.
March 16, 2022
Before this book I would have never thought such emotionless and factual writing would be able to make me cry. Is there no place on earth for me is the story of Sylvia, a very intelligent woman who begins suffering with her mental health in her mid teens and followers her seventeen year journey in and out of hospitals. This incredibly harrowing story granted me an insight into the fundamental issues within the healthcare system and how it is so easy for a person to become a ‘revolving door patient’. This truly incredible narrative was captivating as it was written by a journalist, Sheehan, who followed Sylvia for over a year even staying in the hospital with her to document her journey. I couldn’t recommend this book enough, despite its heavy subject topic.
January 18, 2008
I decided to read this book because I had enjoyed another book by the same author. Also, the subject of mental illness interests me and this book is the true story of "Sylvia", who struggled with schizophrenia for many years.
When I started the book, I noticed it was published in 1983 and was concerned that it would be too outdated. It was actually interesting to read about mental health treatment during the late 1960s into the early 1980s, especially at Creedmoor, the notorious mental hospital in Queens, NY. Some of the early prevailing theories about the causes and treatments for schizophrenia seem quite absurd in retrospect.
My critique of the book is that sometimes it was too straightforward and read like a dry chronology of the subject's cycling in and out of Creedmoor and other hospital/institutions as well as verbatim notes from her clinical charts. After awhile, it felt repetitive, irrelevant and occasionally boring.
The best part of the book is when the author explores the subject's childhood and early signs of mental illness and how her diagnosis of schizophrenia was finally made. Through vivid portrayals of Sylvia's hallucinations, delusional thinking, and erratic behavior, I was given a clear understanding of schizophrenia.
When I started the book, I noticed it was published in 1983 and was concerned that it would be too outdated. It was actually interesting to read about mental health treatment during the late 1960s into the early 1980s, especially at Creedmoor, the notorious mental hospital in Queens, NY. Some of the early prevailing theories about the causes and treatments for schizophrenia seem quite absurd in retrospect.
My critique of the book is that sometimes it was too straightforward and read like a dry chronology of the subject's cycling in and out of Creedmoor and other hospital/institutions as well as verbatim notes from her clinical charts. After awhile, it felt repetitive, irrelevant and occasionally boring.
The best part of the book is when the author explores the subject's childhood and early signs of mental illness and how her diagnosis of schizophrenia was finally made. Through vivid portrayals of Sylvia's hallucinations, delusional thinking, and erratic behavior, I was given a clear understanding of schizophrenia.
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June 8, 2024The answer, apparently, is no :(
July 5, 2009
Despite the absolutely awful cover art for this book, the writing itself is wonderful. The narrative focuses on the "story" of Sylvia (it is true, so it's not really a story, since it's her life), who is one part normal twenty-something girl, one-part sad mental health patient, and one part Little Edie (guess which parts are the most entertaining to read.) However, Sheehan (who was a reporter when she undertook the writing of the book), also writes about the hospital Sylvia spends most of her time in, the medications she is prescribed, and the various treatments she is subjected to. Since this is all taking place in the seventies, a lot of the standard mental health care seems positively stone age. Equally disturbing is the public opinion and misconception of mental illness, which Sylvia feels acutely. I would like a follow-up, as Sylvia. . . uh oh. Have to work.
September 14, 2019
This isn't an entertaining story, and I can't say that I enjoyed reading it, but it will stay with me. Sheehan has written a detailed account of 30-year-old 'Sylvia's' life with uncontrolled schizophrenia, focusing on the years 1978-1980 with added details about her earlier years. 'Sylvia' spent a significant portion of her adult life at Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital in NY.
I did a google search to update 'Sylvia's' status and learned that she died in 1994 when she was about 46 years old.
I'd like to read a similar account of the daily life of someone with schizophrenia today. I certainly hope that their quality of life is better than the one described here.
Aside: Woody Guthrie died at Creedmoor in 1967. He had Huntington's disease.
I did a google search to update 'Sylvia's' status and learned that she died in 1994 when she was about 46 years old.
I'd like to read a similar account of the daily life of someone with schizophrenia today. I certainly hope that their quality of life is better than the one described here.
Aside: Woody Guthrie died at Creedmoor in 1967. He had Huntington's disease.
August 3, 2017
This was an incredibly insightful look at schizophrenia and its treatment in the 60s/70s. I really appreciated Sheehan's matter-of-fact presentation, and the meticulous detail she gave on, well, everything. It did make it a bit tedious, but makes this a fantastic resource for both psychology students and creative writers (both categories I belong to :]). I do wish we'd gotten more of an understanding of how Sheehan got the information, and her place in Sylvia's life. I think it was a good choice not to insert herself into the narrative, and leave this as Sylvia's story, but I would've appreciated it in an afterword or something.
June 26, 2008
This is a good book for anyone interested in psychology. It is a true biography of a schizophrenic woman. The first half of the book was wonderful, well written,interesting, and filled with facts about the instutional world ,as well as, observations on the patient. The second half of the book was dissapointing. It became repetitive and reflected all the details of the biographers notes. A good story does not include every minutia - the exacting detail becomes boring as one is taken through the day by day life of the schizophrenic woman over and over again.
July 17, 2012
This book is a journey into the life of a woman suffering from schizophrenia. Susan Sheehan documented the tumultuous life of Sylvia Frumkin in a series of articles that appeared in The NewYorker and was later made into the book. Sylvia's story is a sad and eyeopening account of life with a severe mental illness. All through the book I kept hoping for a "cure" or some way for Sylvia to manage this illness in a way to improve her quality if life - even after having read the book I purchased the NewYorker article "What ever happened to Sylvia Frumkin" to find out...
May 23, 2013
I learned a lot, though I'm sure the book is dated. Certainly the writing style is old-fashioned, sometimes to the point of confusion. For some reason I find a conversation between "Miss Frumkin," "Mrs. Frumkin" and "Mr. Frumkin" rather harder to follow than a conversation between Sylvia, Harriet and Irving. The book also jumps back and forth between time periods-- this I attribute to the fact that it started life as a series of articles. It would be interesting to know if/how mental health treatment compares today.
February 18, 2021
Admission: I did not get more than a quarter of the way through this book. It has some interesting perspectives on mental illness, and promised to have many more. I do not, however, want to spend my time hearing what color the papers on the nurses clipboard were or, on what schedule the floors were mopped. It read like anthropology report on the protagonist and the mental hospital she was in.
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