The Last Asylum by Barbara Taylor

The Last Asylum by Barbara Taylor

In the late 1970s, Barbara Taylor, then an acclaimed young historian, began to suffer from severe anxiety. In the years that followed, Taylor's world contracted around her illness. Eventually, her struggles were severe enough to lead to her admission to what had once been England's largest psychiatric institution, the infamous Friern Mental Hospital in North London.

The Last Asylum is Taylor's breathtakingly blunt and brave account of those years. In it, Taylor draws not only on her experience as a historian, but also, more importantly, on her own lived history at Friern-- once known as the Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum and today the site of a luxury apartment complex. Taylor was admitted to Friern in July 1988, not long before England's asylum system began to undergo dramatic change: in a development that was mirrored in America, the 1990s saw the old asylums shuttered, their patients left to plot courses through a perpetually overcrowded and underfunded system of community care. But Taylor contends that the emptying of the asylums also marked a bigger loss, a loss of community. She credits her own recovery to the help of a steadfast psychoanalyst and a loyal circle of friends-- from Magda, Taylor's manic-depressive roommate, to Fiona, who shares tips for navigating the system and stories of her boyfriend, the Spaceman, and his regular journeys to Saturn. The forging of that network of support and trust was crucial to Taylor's recovery, offering a respite from the stranded, homeless feelings she and others found in the outside world.

A vivid picture of mental health treatment at a moment of epochal change, The Last Asylum is also a moving meditation on Taylor's own experience, as well as that of millions of others who struggle with mental illness.

Barbara Taylor studied Environmental Sciences at Southampton University before becoming a science editor and writer at London's Natural History Museum. She has worked as an editor for a number of London publishers and is an award-winning author of more than 120 children's information books and encyclopedias on natural history, science and geography. Barbara has won the following awards: The American Association of Physics Science Writing Award; The Geographical Association Gold Award; The English Association's 4-11 award in the Key Stage 2 Non-Fiction category; The Wow! Award from the National Literacy Association.

Stephen Moss is a television producer, writer and broadcaster specialising in British wildlife, especially birds. He works at the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, where he has been responsible for many successful series, including Birding with Bill Oddie, Big Cat Diary, The Nature of Britain and Springwatch. He writes a monthly column on birdwatching for The Guardian, and regularly contributes to magazines and radio programmes. His books include A Bird in the Bush: a Social History of Birdwatching, This Birding Life, A Sky Full of Starlings and The Bumper Book of Nature.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780226273921
ISBN 10	022627392X
Titel	The Last Asylum
Autor	Barbara Taylor
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Paperback
Verlag	University Of Chicago Press
Erscheinungsjahr	2015-04-15
Seitenanzahl	320
Preise	RBC Taylor Prize
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
Hinweis	Nicht verfügbar