Darby Penney (1952–2021)
Author of The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic
About the Author
Image credit: Darby Penney
Works by Darby Penney
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1952-12-10
- Date of death
- 2021-10-11
- Gender
- female
- Education
- State University of New York, Empire State College (B.S. ∙ writing and literature ∙ 1976)
State University of New York, Albany (M.L.S. ∙ 1980) - Occupations
- librarian
director of recipient affairs, New York State Office of Mental Health - Short biography
- Darby Penney is a national leader in the human rights movement for people with psychiatric disabilities and a former state mental health official who has experienced the mental health system inside and out. Currently a Senior Research Associate with Advocates for Human Potential, Inc., she was Director of Recipient Affairs at the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) from 1992-2001, where she was responsible for bringing the perspectives of people with psychiatric disabilities into the policy-making process. From 2001-2003, she was OMH Director of Historical Projects, where she oversaw the collection of ex-patient oral histories, state hospital cemetery restoration, and the Willard Suitcase Project. Darby is president of The Community Consortium, a non-profit group of ex-patients and their allies working to promote community integration for people with psychiatric labels. She was honored for her work promoting the human rights of people with psychiatric histories by being named a 2005 Fellow by the Petra Foundation. She has spoken, published and consulted nationally and internationally on psychiatric disability and rights issues. Darby did an illustrated slide lecture on the Willard suitcase owners at the World Federation for Mental Health Conference in Cairo, Egypt, in 2005. From 1991- 2004, Darby was publisher (and her husband, Ken Denberg, was editor) of The Snail’s Pace Press, a literary small press that published a journal, The Snail’s Pace Review, and books of poetry and short fiction. Her own poetry has been published in a number of journals.
- Cause of death
- cancer
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Oceanside, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- Albany, New York, USA
- Place of death
- Albany, New York, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- New York, USA
Members
Reviews
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 show more "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. show less
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 show more "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. show less
The Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane opened in upstate New York in 1869. It was thought to be a humane way to deal with those afflicted with mental illness, even though most of the people admitted received little in the way of care, and few were discharged once admitted. This hospital did not close its doors until 1995, and after it did, over 400 suitcases were found in an attic, containing the personal belongings of patients who had died while hospitalized. Given access, Darby Penney show more and Peter Stastny were able to curate and catalog their contents. This led to a photographic exhibition, and ultimately, this 2008 book in which the authors highlight the lives of ten of those suitcase owners.
By centering these life stories around the possessions the patients brought with them when hospitalized, Penney and Stastny are able to recreate a time when these individuals lived productive lives in their communities. While they seem to downplay the fact that these people did in fact suffer from mental illness, they do show that hospitalization, rather than helping, usually worsened their conditions. By presenting the full life histories of these suitcase owners, the authors highlight the human toll of 20th Century institutionalized mental care in this country. The photographs of the suitcase contents included in The Lives They Left Behind and of the patients themselves help to illustrate the heartbreaking stories. But even if these state hospitals were not the solution to caring for the mentally ill, one cannot help but wonder if we are doing a better job today, with so many afflicted individuals living homeless on our city streets. show less
By centering these life stories around the possessions the patients brought with them when hospitalized, Penney and Stastny are able to recreate a time when these individuals lived productive lives in their communities. While they seem to downplay the fact that these people did in fact suffer from mental illness, they do show that hospitalization, rather than helping, usually worsened their conditions. By presenting the full life histories of these suitcase owners, the authors highlight the human toll of 20th Century institutionalized mental care in this country. The photographs of the suitcase contents included in The Lives They Left Behind and of the patients themselves help to illustrate the heartbreaking stories. But even if these state hospitals were not the solution to caring for the mentally ill, one cannot help but wonder if we are doing a better job today, with so many afflicted individuals living homeless on our city streets. show less
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 show more 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 show less
I absolutely loved how the show more 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 show less
This is a very difficult book to read because it shows the damage that can be done to people who have no resources to fight for themselves. Penney's theory is that when mental institutions became more humane, more people were committed to them. Add this fact to the eugenics movement which postulated that only the best sort of people should be encouraged to reproduce and mental institution populations were greatly increased so that mentally ill or mentally "defective" people could be removed show more from society for their reproductive lives. As the population of mental institutions grew larger the growth actually helped fuel its own increase because the patients themselves were used as free labor to perform the menial work necessitated to keep the institutions functioning. There were no psychopharmaceuticals for most of the time Willard State hospital was in operation. Essentially, the patients got no mental health care at all. They were observed at intervals but they were seldom released from custody because of their evaluations. Those who could work were encouraged to do so, those who couldn't or wouldn't just sat, for years and years and years. When early psychopharmaceuticals were introduced they were give to people long after the fact that they were shown to cause tardive dyskinesia. Electroconvulsive therapy was used as a form of patient control.
Lastly Penney shows how the modern method of dealing with mental illness is far from optimal. Hospitals have closed, and those who can't care for themselves have either become homeless or incarcerated or relegated to "adult care homes" that frequently offer as little care as Willard did. Peer therapy and interaction has been shown to be effective but is used far too infrequently in he age of little respect or finances to care for people facing mental health challenges. show less
Lastly Penney shows how the modern method of dealing with mental illness is far from optimal. Hospitals have closed, and those who can't care for themselves have either become homeless or incarcerated or relegated to "adult care homes" that frequently offer as little care as Willard did. Peer therapy and interaction has been shown to be effective but is used far too infrequently in he age of little respect or finances to care for people facing mental health challenges. show less
Lists
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 1
- Members
- 467
- Popularity
- #52,671
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 17
- ISBNs
- 6