The Road Out of Bedlam: A History of the Stigma of Mental Illness

By Roy Richard Grinker and Roy Richard Grinker

A bracing reexamination of the idea of mental illness One in five Americans will experience mental illness. Sixty percent will not seek treatment, for fear of shame and discrimination. This is the stigma of mental illness, and it is nothing short of a public health crisis. In The Road Out of Bedlam , Roy Richard Grinker argues that we are at the cusp of ending the long-standing marginalization of the mentally ill that began in the early days of capitalism. For centuries, asylums confined people deemed economically unproductive. There, doctors developed mental illness categories not as mere medical diagnoses but as moral judgments of the afflicted. Grinker chronicles the struggle against stigma -- from the days of Bedlam to the twenty-first century, where mental illnesses are becoming an accepted part of human diversity. Urgent and eye-opening, The Road Out of Bedlam explains how we are transforming the meaning of mental illness and offers a way to break the chain of stigma.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1541699785
• ISBN13: 9781541699786
• Release Date: June 2020
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 432 Pages