Asylum

by William B. Seabrook

In 1934, William Seabrook was one of the most famous journalists in the world. He was also an alcoholic. But there was no treatment for his disease. So he checked himself into an insane asylum. There, from the perspective of a travel writer, he described his own journey through this strange and foreign place. Today, you can’t read a page in the book without seeing him bump, unknowingly, into the basic principles of 12-step groups and then thwarted by well meaning doctors (like the one who decides he’s cured and can start drinking again). On a regular basis, he says things so clear, so self-aware that you’re stunned an addict could have written it–shocked that this book isn’t a classic American text.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, Psychology, History, Biography Memoir, Autobiography

263 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1935

About the author

William Buehler Seabrook was a journalist and explorer whose interest in the occult lead him across the globe where he studied magic rituals, trained as a witch doctor, and famously ate human flesh, likening it to veal. Despite his studious accounts of magical practices, he insisted he had never seen anything which could not be explained rationally.

His book on witchcraft is notable for its thoughtful focus on arch-occultist Aleister Crowley, who stayed at Seabrook's home for a short time.

Reviews

[Ryan Holiday · Rating 4 out of 5]

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's book The Crack Up, he mentions in passing the memoir of a man who had himself committed to an institution. Both he and Fitzgerald had cracked under the same pressure, or so Fitzgerald thought. The man was William Seabrook, a world-famous travel writer from the Lost Generation and the book was Asylum. In 1934, Seabrook knew he was slowly drinking himself to death and entered an insane asylum. There, from the perspective of a travel writer, he described his own journey through this strange and foreign place. Today, you can't read a page in the book without seeing him bump, unknowingly, into the basic principles of 12-step groups. On a regular basis, he says things so clear, so self-aware that you're stunned an addict could have written it - shocked that this book isn't a classic American text.

I read three of Seabrook's books back to back so I'm unable to say where one stopped and another began. But you find that the deep, ceaseless fear that drove him to drink was that he'd die a mediocre writer, barely remembered. Ultimately, this is what happened. It was this fear and anxiety that drove Seabrook around the world. It's awful, really, because aside from the occasional strange phrase, there isn't a word in his books that couldn't have been just as easily written today. I mean the whole gonzo concept of Wolfe and Thompson was essentially done by Seabrook 30+ years prior and in a bolder way. He went to Africa while Thompson barely made it to Vegas. He was a Hearst syndicate writer, one of the earliest Americans to serve in the First World War, a horse bandit in the Middle East, the first Western writer to taste human flesh and describe it, the first to use the word `zombie' in an English text. Yet all his books are out of print and hard to find. Two of my copies are first editions from 1931 and 1942.

What you'll notice, in these books, is how he's always asking why and what for? Way too many memoirs are hampered by their own narcissism but Seabrook is honest and self-critical. Asylum is maybe the best book on addiction I've ever read and it breaks your heart, knowing that just a few decades later someone would have been able to help him. Read it first and then try No Hiding Place: An Autobiography. If you're skeptical, find the book review from Time Magazine in 1942 that talks about his lifelong fetish for women in chains. I also read Jungle Ways which was a good end to the trilogy. You may have a hard time finding them but try to pick them up from Amazon or a college library because they are awesome. It's nice to have books in your library that few people have even heard of.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Seabrook started drinking more and writing less."

Seabrook never got clean and this book is a good document as to the why he ended up drinking himself to death. In addition, to the ravages that alcoholism inflicts upon its sufferers. For one thing, this book is rather a mess of resentments, petty observations, and lackluster prose that rambles around minimal reporting.

Seabrook spends a lot of the time talking about his fellow "playmates" and almost NO time on his own treatment or delving into the causes and effects of his drinking. In fact, he minimizes his drinking and says nothing about how it effected his life - outside of his lack of writing. Sure, he comes to a conclusion that he fears living life. He dreads the idea of being a hack writer. And those insights are profound, but ultimately, unhelpful because by the end of his 7 month stint in the Asylum his is already drinking again.

If only he had trained his keen journalist eye upon himself within the institution, he might have produced a more nuanced and compelling story, but instead he gawks at the other patients in an attempt to create an empathetic sideshow of modern ailments. The only time he talks about any therapy he undergoes it is to air a grievance or drive home a stake of resentment.

I had hoped for a weirder, more daringly honest book - but quickly realized that was impossible from such a hopeless case.

[Sue Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Asylum By William Seabrook is a self-help and non-fiction read.
"With zombies in vogue and his books coming back onto the market after decades out of print, maybe old Willie Seabrook, the lost king of the weird, can finally get the recognition and infamy he earned." ― Benjamin Welton, Vice.com
This dramatic memoir recounts an eight-month stay at a Westchester mental hospital in the early 1930s. William Seabrook, a renowned journalist and explorer, voluntarily committed himself to an asylum for treatment of acute alcoholism. His sincere, self-critical appraisal of his experiences offers a highly interesting look at addiction and treatment in the days before Alcoholics Anonymous and other modern programs.
"Very few people could be as honest as Seabrook is here," noted The New York Times, "and it is honesty plus the talent Seabrook has already had that makes a book of this sort first-rate." This edition of the soul-baring narrative features a new graphic novel–style introduction by Joe Ollmann, who also created the cover art.
A very good read. Although a bit slow I still managed to read it. 3*. Thanks to netgalley for the arc.

[Jacob Kuba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very entertaining and not as dark as I expected, or really at all. Does a great job of capturing his struggle with his mental health. Feel like this is a must read for eliminating the stigma with this topic. Highly recommend (but think some may struggle with the writing style where it’s highly reflective and not always about this or that event occurring)

Each sentence is like a little treat! 😋

[Aidan Reid · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars. Some little gems in this book. Very 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'. Worth a read.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those that want to get a glimpse of how the world treated Alcoholism before AA then Seabrook's biography is a great starting place. I've been wanting to read it ever since I heard it mentioned in the Big Book (1st edition) story Women Suffer Too.
Seabrook tells of his treatment while in an Asylum. The book itself is in need of a good editor as he tends to chase rabbits; however, the tale itself is still haunting and powerful. Perhaps the saddest part is Seabrook has glimpses of some of AA's basic wisdom and yet it is just beyond his grasp or the doctors and system of the Asylum discount it and thus lead him right back into his troubles.
Of note: pg 147. Example of powerlessness - "I had known I was "lost" and wanted to be "saved." I had known that my own strength, my own will, could no longer save me. I had been willing to "abase" myself, to relinquish myself, my life, my will, my body into hands stronger than my own. I was through, and I knew it." He told his doctor about this and he "didn't like it any too well. He felt there was some hidden cowardice in it and afraid to face life."
pg. 250 "I explained to the doctor I had dug as deep into myself as I could and that I was afraid my trade had been the cause of my drunkenness. I was afraid that what had driven me to drink was the fear that I could never write well enough for it to make any difference whether I wrote at all or not......" The Doc's reply "No, I don't think you're fear has anything to do with it." AH!!! I wanted to scream at the psych doctor.
Sadly, they told Seabrook he could go back to drinking safely, which he did not do, and thus 10 years later OD in 1945 before his writing could achieve the fame it deserved.

[Allan MacDonell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recently, I was confined to hospital defying all diagnosis, subject of grave prognosis. A concerned friend dropped a copy of Asylum on me. I could barely read. Stunt writer William B. Seabrook commits himself to a psycho ward for hopeless alcoholics. The book, Seabrook insists, is not one word fiction. He is put through the therapeutic ordeals of the time and endures all indignities in a spirit of grand sportsmanship. In conclusion, the writer proclaims himself cured. I have not needed to use google search to know Seabrook subsequently meets a bad end.

[Laura M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this true account of an asylum patient in the 1930s. It reminded me a lot of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, with descriptions of life inside a mental institution and an amusing cast of characters. There was obviously no fictional story arc like a novel would have, but it was still compelling and entertaining.

litandflicks.com

[Molly Helm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heartwrenching and humorous insight into the mind of an addict. Written nearly a century ago, this diary-of-sorts gives the rest of us more than a peek at crazy inside an institution of old, and in the meantime, we may recognize slivers of ourselves through the author's candid self-reflections.

[judy m · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting true story (written in 1934), regarding an alcoholic that voluntarily gets committed to an asylum to try to be cured. He does a good job describing his time, treatment and experiences along the way.

[Joe Rodeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Whiskey was a gift of the gods--dangerous, like fire and all gifts from heaven--to be used by the strong man with pleasure for joy, to solace and stimulate the imagination, to clothe reality in rosy light, evoke elusive happiness. I had misused it as a stupefying poison, to deaden consciousness--as an escape."

Don't expect a harrowing tale of violent withdrawal but a realistic account of hospitalization from a guy who drank a quart and a half of whiskey a day. Writing is occasionally brilliant and even mystic.

[HSB · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe this book hits home because of the life stage I'm reading it, but this was one of my favourite books this year. I will revisit it a few years down the line to see if it still holds up - I suspect it will.

William B Seabrook checks himself into the titular Asylum to cure himself of alcoholism. The narrative is an affectionate, frequently funny, just as frequently depressing meditation on himself and his fellow inmates. Sort of like a less sensational From the Inside by Alice Cooper - a concept album of HIS time in an asylum for alcohol addiction.

Seabrook's stint in the asylum gives him a chance to deeply explore the underlying causes of his addiction: the fear that he's not good enough and that his legacy will be forgotten. The latter of which has unfortunately come to pass, given that he is nowhere near as famous or as ubiquitous as many other far less worthy authors are - I've at this point read only one book more by Hemingway than I've read by Seabrook, and I'd say Seabrook is a lot better. To put it in a less obscure way, Asylum beats the pants off A Farewell To Arms and The Old Man and The Sea.

It's a book full of brutal remorseless self examination - a frank confession of character flaws and surprisingly little self pity. I'm not sure if that's a product of the time it was written - the mid-1930s - or the person who was doing the writing.

Ward attendants, nurses and even the mildly villainous Dr Quigley are treated with affection and respect accorded to people doing their best in a tough job.

I am not sure how much of it holds true in a world where psychiatric problems are - at least from my understanding of it - by and large medicated away, but Asylum remains a fascinating chronicle of an unusual time in an unusual place.

[Dawn Tessman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The true story of an alcoholic who committed himself to a mental hospital as a cure. Seabrook had been writing a rather engaging biography up to the point his ego took over and he flipped his focus to running an exposé on the mysterious and inaccessible “back halls” of the institution where the most disturbed patients resided. It was then that aspects of the story began to seem fabricated, particularly the purported eye witness accounts obtained from a patient named Philip about another patient who walked like a sea turtle. Seabrook supposedly quoted the man verbatim, but it felt contrived, especially given that Philip happened to use the same key phrases of the author; the typed account included long, incoherent passages that would have been uncharacteristic for Philip to leave in once his lucidity had been restored given his education and upbringing; and, the author repeatedly commented that he was only sharing the story to help paint a picture, thus furthering the sense of being forced. It’s possible it is all completely true, but it didn’t pass the smell test which resulted in lost credibility followed by my interest. Until that moment, I flew through the book and found it quite interesting. Too bad he didn’t quit while he was ahead.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't a book about alcoholism, even though that was the reason Seabrook allowed himself to be incarcerated in an institution for over 6 months in 1933.
Rather, it is a book about his fellow inmates, suffering from a variety of mental health disorders and displaying equally varied symptoms.
Also, a history of the development of "modern" techniques to deal with mental health, which took the patients beyond the traditional route of simply locking them up, to experimenting with behavioural modification.
It's ironic that, as I'm reading this, I'm also watching the TV series "Ratched", a wildly fictional and fantastical account of the earlier life of the famous "Nurse Ratched" from "One flew over the cuckoo's nest".
There are similarities, although Seabrook's account is from an earlier decade and more grounded.

[Dad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating patient’s-eye view of a happy but all-too-brief period in mental-health care. Physical restraint (straitjackets and the like) had been abandoned. Shock therapies, lobotomies and neurotoxic pharmaceuticals had yet to be introduced.

Seabrook writes:

“This whole phase of modern psychiatric therapy, it.seemed to me, was legitimate and successful...if costly. I am not using costly as a weasel-word or metaphor. I do not mean that it was costly in terms of gouged eyes or broken bones. I mean that this modern system is obviously more expensive to the institution in terms of actual money. It requires more and better attendants. They didn’t have to pay salaries to straitjackets or work handcuffs in eight-hour shifts.”.

[François Blanchette · Rating 4 out of 5]

A crossroads between an anthropological report on asylum’s operations at the early part of the twentieth century and a self-analysis notebook.

A keenly respectful portrait of mental health made without any stigmatization and lack of guile. Written at a time where treatments for people struggling with mental health conditions could only rely the stoppage institutions could provide, the book explains well how asylum’s personnel would go out of their way so that their patients would be "cured". Seabrook had written many adventure books, but had never attempted a personal journey before this one. This distinctive characteristic has made this reading timeless as the difficult thematic to which he rubs his writing.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Asylum offers an interesting insight into a world most people would hope they never have to experience. The key take away I got from this book is that people are people. Regardless of circumstance the human condition remains prevalent even in those who have lost their minds. Most likely this book helped the author deal with his time in the Asylum. However I feel as though he would have benefited more from the caregivers if he had accepted that he was also an inmate at the Asylum. Often in his writing he presents himself as an observer rather than a participant. Perhaps it is this attitude that lead to his eventual return to alcoholism and subsequent death as a result.

[Mary Kearney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a true account of Seabrook's institutionalization to "dry out" from his drinking. One of the earliest "confessional" pieces of journalism in the 40's and a entry way into our current love of memoirs and the airing of dirty laundry. Seabrook himself is a fascinating journalist who is undervalued. This is not a story of AA but a true account. Many of his characters seem straight out of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The only reason I gave it 4 out of 5 stars is that it seemed a little dated and also because I am a firm believer in AA as the most successful option for that disease (having had experience with it through my mother). I think it is a book that needs rediscovery.

[D Brothers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting as a memoir, and a book that doesn't take itself too seriously. Definitely some tones of male white privilege that haven't aged well. He also failed to acknowledge (to the reader, and perhaps to himself) what was clearly a high-end psychiatric facility, and the fact that this wasn't a typical "asylum" experience as one of the cover jackets suggests. Think minimum security prison for white collar criminals, versus the state pen.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a personal, eye-opening personal story of the struggles of a writer sent to an asylum to cure him of his alcoholism. The best thing about this book is both a historical look on the change in psychiatric care from the Victorian days of straight jackets, to a modern, more wholesome method of understanding the mental illness that plagues them. Funny, heart-rending at times, it is an honest account of one man's journey into facing his own demons.

[Paul Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkably contemporary for a book written 75 years ago. Given Seabrook's life (and death) I fail to understand why he is out of print and forgotten and yet his near contemporary in time and certainly in lifestyle (and manner of death) Hemingway is so lionised. I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Up there with Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, Artificial Paradises, Junky, and Diary of a Drug Fiend, amongst others.

Seabrook popularized the word zombie in the English language and his work inspired the early zombie movie of the 1930s and the genre's resurgence in the 1960s.

He has been unfairly forgotten and is worth reading even today.

A must-read.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

[Pollypollack · Rating 5 out of 5]

The "asylum" William Seabrook checked into to stay off of booze for a while was more like a country club with rather unique members. Dances, dressy dinner parties and plenty of recreation options were part of daily life here. His descripton of his stay and the cast of characters he lived with make this account of his stay worth the short time needed to read it.

[Guruprasad Jambaulikar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A valuable snapshot from a different time

This book gives a view into the mind of one troubled by mental illness and dependence. It also gives a comparative to where society and psychiatry have arrived in the last 100 years. Valuable insights.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

An old-timey book about an asylum in the 1930's. It was an good book, but definitely dragged on. It was interesting, from a historical perspective, on one person's view, but not really widely applicable. His ideas about alcoholism and his asylum are fitting for his experience.

[Jimmy Clifford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting book, often dull. Some of the stories were funny and lighthearted. But it was all over the place at other times. I was surprised, however, that the asylum was a lot more humane than I expected.

[Sam Klemens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well I enjoyed it. It was a good picture. Combine this with Cuckoo's Nest and it almost feels like you can have an idea what it would be like to be in one of these places at the time.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

INTERESTING

Gives some insight into the medical theory and treatment of alcoholism and mental illnesses in 1930's. The author subsequently committed suicide.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmmm
Not really what I was hoping for, but still an interesting read. Barbaric for sure.

[Jase · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredibly unfiltered true tale of a writers stay in an Asylum to treat alcoholism. A great deal of self awareness in regard to his drinking and why. A shame he was never able to conquer it.