Beyond Bedlam's Door: True Tales from the Couch and Courtroom by Mark Rubinstein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Mark Rubinstein, MD, brings us another great book that looks into the lives and stories of twenty-one mentally ill people and the influences around them. In addition to telling interesting stories about psychiatric patients, BEYOND BEDLAM'S DOOR also delves into fascinating court cases involving them and the legal ramifications of our system here in the United States.
"Put succinctly, mixing law, medicine, and money can sometimes generate odd situations" (page 48).
"Where money and the law intersect, truth can sometimes be the victim" (page 90).
I'm intrigued by the reality of how much influence one person has over another. This book explores and shows how loved ones can knowingly, and unknowingly, hinder another person's ability to master his or her own mental condition.
The stories in this book are well told, and with each one, the author includes an "afterword" discussing and explaining the legal and medical issues involved in that particular story. While interesting, these afterwords became repetitive, causing me to give the book four stars instead of five. If each medical condition had been explained once, the first time a story was told about it, and then merely footnoted or referred to a glossary each subsequent time, the book would have been more engaging. However, even as is, this book was a terrific read.
I highly recommend this book to anyone in the mental health profession or anyone curious to understand the workings of the human mind.
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This book and its topic are very timely.
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