Suicide: Inside and Out

by David K. Reynolds, Norman L. Farberow

Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The result of a fascinating study from 1971: a social anthropologist adopted the elaborate identity of a depressed and suicidal young man and checked himself into a mental hospital for a two-week stay. The only person who knew the truth of the situation was the guy in charge of the hospital. During his stay there, "David Kent" took careful note of all aspects of the hospital, from the interactions between patients and staff to the availability of potentially harmful items, etc., and reached some surprising conclusions. The book includes Kent/Reynolds's notes as well as his patient records from the hospital.

Having been a psychiatric inpatient myself on a few occasions, I totally identified with Kent/Reynolds's experience and thought his insights were spot-on. (In fact, I wish every mental health clinician should have to go through something like this, as part of their training.) I only wish the study was from 2011 instead of 1971; I'd like to see what's changed since then. Not much, I suspect.

[Robert Bogue]

Years ago, I was doing a conference in the Union Square area of San Francisco, and I received a warning about the homeless in the area. During the day, things were fine; but I shouldn’t go walking alone at night, because many of the homeless in the area had untreated mental illness. As I inquired more about it, I was told that since the state shut down the mental institutions and “dumped” those with mental illnesses on the streets, it was impossible to control the homeless population – and it was riskier to ignore them.

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[Cybercrone · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a brilliant book. Having 'been there, done that' several times I can say that his understanding of the process and comments about it and the general field of psychiatry are spot on.
His 'Water Series' books are extremely helpful too, in a very practical way.