HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a…
Loading...

The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic (original 2009; edition 2009)

by Darby Penney, Peter Stastny, Lisa Rinzler (Photographer), Robert Whitaker (Introduction)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
4281658,125 (3.76)39
Biography & Autobiography. History. Psychology. Nonfiction. HTML:

??The Lives They Left Behind is a deeply moving testament to the human side of mental illness, and of the narrow margin which so often separates the sane from the mad. It is a remarkable portrait, too, of the life of a psychiatric asylum??the sort of community in which, for better and for worse, hundreds of thousands of people lived out their lives. Darby Penney and Peter Stastny's careful historical (almost archaeological) and biographical reconstructions give us unique insight into these lives which would otherwise be lost and, indeed, unimaginable to the rest of us." ??Oliver Sacks
??Fascinating. . . . The haunting thing about the suitcase owners is that it's so easy to identify with them." ??Newsweek
When Willard State Hospital closed its doors in 1995, after operating as one of New York State's largest mental institutions for over 120 years, a forgotten attic filled with suitcases belonging to former patients was discovered. Using the possessions found in these suitcases along with institutional records and doctors' notes from patient sessions, Darby Penney, a leading advocate of patients' rights, and Peter Stastny, a psychiatrist and documentary filmmaker, were able to reconstruct the lives of ten patients who resided at Willard during the first half of the twentieth century.
The Lives They Left Behind tells their story. In addition to these human portraits, the book contains over 100 photographs as well as valuable historical background on how this state-funded institution operated. As it restores the humanity of the individuals it so poignantly evokes, The Lives They Left Behind reveals the vast historical inadequacies of a psychiatric system that has yet to he
… (more)

Member:FolkeB
Title:The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic
Authors:Darby Penney
Other authors:Peter Stastny, Lisa Rinzler (Photographer), Robert Whitaker (Introduction)
Info:Bellevue Literary Press (2009), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 205 pages
Collections:
Rating:
Tags:newbooks, RC 445 N7 W614 2009

Work Information

The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic by Darby Penney (2009)

Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 39 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 15 (next | show all)
What an amazing story of the lives of 10 people who ended up in the Willard Asylum in Ovid, New York, which ran from 1869 to 1995. When the facility was closed in 1995, four hundred and twenty-seven suitcases were discovered in the attic. Researchers got permission to those suitcases and their medical records, as long as they agreed to change their names to protect the patient’s identities. In this book, the first names are real, but the last names are not.

I absolutely loved how the research and their stories were put together. The author gives you a brief, but very important, part of each patient’s life leading up to the day they were admitted into the asylum, along with a picture or two of that person. Most were immigrants from the 20’s and 30’s with high hopes of making it here in America. Their younger photos will break your heart; they were so young and beautiful with a full life ahead of them. Their stories will make you question every psychiatrist’s knowledge of what he ‘thinks’ he really knows about human life because they never even considered the history of any of the individuals. They had one word for just about every patient, every potential free worker of the state, “paranoid schizophrenia”. How scary it must have been to have someone you had a riff with turn you in to be checked out mentally, and then you find yourself locked into the system with no way out.

If you compare their stories with what you hear about on the news today, you would think half of America should be locked up or need some kind of psychiatric help.

The images in the book are online, along with a few extra photos:
http://www.suitcaseexhibit.org/index.php?section=about&subsection=suitcases ( )
  MissysBookshelf | Aug 27, 2023 |
I think I would have preferred more photos and folks profiled, but this one was touching and a way to connect with a concern that is still current. ( )
  Martialia | Sep 28, 2022 |
interesting read about the workings of a state mental hospital. Research was based on suitcases that were left abandoned in the attic of the hospital after it was closed. Only gave it 3 stars because it read more like a research paper or thesis than a novel which was what I had exoected. ( )
  Jen-Lynn | Aug 1, 2022 |
I don't buy the authors' premise that mental illness stems from trauma, or that these patients did not need medical care, but I enjoyed reading a bit about patient lives. I do wish the authors had not tried so hard to justify everything the patient's did as a normal reaction to life. ( )
  SSBranham | Sep 17, 2020 |
Fascinating look at mental health care in the early to mid 20th Century. I found the narratives a bit jumbled; they seemed to jump in time and skip around. But that was a minor irritation, and overall I found this book riveting.

I believe most of the people profiled in this book might not even be given any mental health treatment today, and was struck by the number of individuals (probably 3 or 4 of the 10) who had sustained a head injury at some time prior to their mental health "breakdown."

I like to think we do a better job with mental health care now, but the authors' afterword paints a fairly grim picture of the current state of things. Many of the people who would have been institutionalized in mental health facilities in the past now end up in the prison system, apparently.

I was left feeling grief for the people in the book and their lost lives/lost potential. People pushed to the periphery of society because they didn't fit into established norms or because they fell on hard times, or had a particularly emotional period. It's there but for the grace of God that I go, and probably many others as well. ( )
  glade1 | Feb 29, 2016 |
Showing 1-5 of 15 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Darby Penneyprimary authorall editionscalculated
Stastny, PeterAuthormain authorall editionsconfirmed
Rinzler, LisaPhotographersecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
Whitaker, RobertForewordsecondary authorall editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
This book is dedicated to the memories of the Willard suitcase owners, and to all others who have lived and died in mental institutions.
First words
The Sheltered Workshop Building stands alone on a hill overlooking Seneca Lake next to the empty lot that once held Chapin Hall, the massive central building of Willard State Hospital in New York. (Prologue)
The literature on the history o our country's treatment of people it considers mad basically consists of two types of book. (Foreword)
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

Biography & Autobiography. History. Psychology. Nonfiction. HTML:

??The Lives They Left Behind is a deeply moving testament to the human side of mental illness, and of the narrow margin which so often separates the sane from the mad. It is a remarkable portrait, too, of the life of a psychiatric asylum??the sort of community in which, for better and for worse, hundreds of thousands of people lived out their lives. Darby Penney and Peter Stastny's careful historical (almost archaeological) and biographical reconstructions give us unique insight into these lives which would otherwise be lost and, indeed, unimaginable to the rest of us." ??Oliver Sacks
??Fascinating. . . . The haunting thing about the suitcase owners is that it's so easy to identify with them." ??Newsweek
When Willard State Hospital closed its doors in 1995, after operating as one of New York State's largest mental institutions for over 120 years, a forgotten attic filled with suitcases belonging to former patients was discovered. Using the possessions found in these suitcases along with institutional records and doctors' notes from patient sessions, Darby Penney, a leading advocate of patients' rights, and Peter Stastny, a psychiatrist and documentary filmmaker, were able to reconstruct the lives of ten patients who resided at Willard during the first half of the twentieth century.
The Lives They Left Behind tells their story. In addition to these human portraits, the book contains over 100 photographs as well as valuable historical background on how this state-funded institution operated. As it restores the humanity of the individuals it so poignantly evokes, The Lives They Left Behind reveals the vast historical inadequacies of a psychiatric system that has yet to he

No library descriptions found.

Book description
The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic offers a rare personal look at ten individuals who disappeared into mental institutions during the first half of the 20th century. Based upon the authors’ research for a major exhibit at the New York State Museum drawing on the suitcase contents, the book tells the stories of promising and complex lives, all transformed by commitment to a mental institution. During their lifetimes, these people’s stories were buried in medical records, if they were told at all; the book is a posthumous chorus of their voices, revealing their life stories publicly for the first time.


Going through the steamer-trunks, cardboard boxes, duffle-bags, fancy and plain suitcases, we uncovered many essential details of these people’s lives up until their arrival at Willard. Their asylum years, as traced in the medical records, contrast dramatically with the richness and poignancy of the materials we found among their belongings: letters, photographs, diaries, knickknacks and religious items; and evidence of careers, like nurses’ collars, an army uniform, needlework, and photography equipment. Bringing together these unique sources, the book creates portraits of individuals who led ordinary and remarkable lives before they were isolated from society. Ordinary, because, they were not particularly noteworthy during their lifetimes; and remarkable, because looking back at them now, they impress us with a compelling poignancy and a determination to transcend the fates that befell them, even under lock and key.
The book is also a social history of 20th century psychiatry; the field’s many disappointments and failures are illustrated through the system’s impact on the lives of people from a wide range of backgrounds, each facing a unique kind of mental and emotional distress. But the biographies of the suitcase owners reveal much more than the sorry state of psychiatric care during the first half of the 20th century. They show new immigrants and native-born Americans dealing with a host of problems in a time of wars and economic hardships. At the same time, they are stories of resilience and creativity, since for each one who broke down under the weight of their experiences, there were several who rose up and found reasons to live within themselves and their immediate surroundings. These stories have a strong bearing on the lives of the millions of people living with serious psychiatric diagnoses. While far fewer people are now confined for decades in state institutions, many are still gathered in squalid ghettos and shunned by society, living largely unfulfilled lives, despite the scientific advances claimed by modern psychiatry. They, too, would benefit from a renewed look at their humanity and the lives they could be leading, if they were given the respect, opportunities and supports they deserve.
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.76)
0.5
1 1
1.5
2 3
2.5 3
3 18
3.5 4
4 23
4.5 2
5 16

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,232,210 books! | Top bar: Always visible