A book to make your blood run cold, regarding the involuntary incarceration of the mentally ill. Readings from fiction and medical sources, from Daniel Defoe to John Perceival, from Sylvia Plath to Janet Frame, and from Anton Chekov to Jack London. Includes such delightful and uplifting essays as "The Discovery of the Lobotomy", "Deception and Terrors as Cures for Madness", and "Sanity Through Suffocation". A wonderful Edward Gorey cover is the icing on the cake.