Book Review: Crazy by Pete Earley
Published May 26, 2006
But Earley's journalistic eye makes this far more than a recitation of figures and statistics. He explores the pharmaceutical breakthroughs and societal and legal changes that led to "deinstitutionalization," the wholesale discharge of the mentally ill from state mental institutions. He takes us to the psych ward in the Miami-Dade County Jail and meets with mental health advocates, doctors, those who suffer from mental illness, and their families and friends. For some, the story may be even more disturbing than Mike's.
As just one of numerous examples Earley recounts, consider the 48-year-old woman who shoved, but did not injure, an elderly woman at a bus stop after accusing the woman of stealing her thoughts. She was arrested but found incompetent to stand trial. By the time Earley sees her, she had been shuttled between the state hospital and jail for more than three years as they attempted to make and keep her "mentally competent." She still had not stood trial.
This revolving door is far too common, Earley finds. The mentally ill — who make up a significant portion of the homeless in the country — bounce among the streets, the criminal justice system and mental health centers. When in custody or under daily supervision, those with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or schizoaffective disorder who receive proper pharmaceutical management can try to get a handle on their problems. Yet when that does not occur, continued use of the proper medications becomes problematic and the mentally disordered end up in as bad as or worse condition than when the cycle started.
Using highly readable prose to put human faces on this self-perpetuating vicious circle and exploring potential alternatives to the myriad problems, Crazy amounts to advocacy of perhaps the best sort. Nor does this become a soap box screed. Instead of letting his self-interest step too far across the boundary between objectivity and one-sidedness, Earley's personal experience always leads back to a fundamental question: What if it was you or your child, sibling or parent?
Such a question is an important step in understanding and helping a significant number of powerless and debilitated people whose safety net is tattered and threadbare.
- Book Review: Crazy by Pete Earley
- Published: May 26, 2006
- Type: Review
- Section: Books
- Filed Under: Books: Health, Books: Nonfiction, Culture: Crime and Court, Review
- Writer: Tim Gebhart
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- Tim Gebhart's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
RR closed the mental hospitals when he was governor, and it filled the streets with homeless people. What's the point? The short term economies from cost reduction are quickly offset in other areas.
This book Pin points the very thing my family has endured for 15 years. My oldest child has went in the same direction as pete earley's son mike. I live in tennessee and can't get any help for my 38 year old child, because of the very things in mikes book I want to read all of the book hope it brings help to me and my family
Thanks to Pete for writing this book...it's been exactly the same for our family when my daughter, Karen was ill. It's an absolute miracle that she survived and is alive today. The mental health system is indeed "madness", an unbelieveable maze/
often a ridiculous and inefficient nightmare that parents have to cope with when their child is in terrible danger with his/her illness and the parents need to do something immediately to avert tragedy. Our beautiful daughter was continually thrown out on the street from hospitals, psych units, jails, and "rehab centers" only to find herself homeless, alone, irrational and vulnerable. Police Depts were even worse and often said they were powerless to help us. I congratulate Pete on writing the book...how he found the energy and time to do it, I will never know...we were so consumed with crisis after crisis and not being able to get competent help in emergencies, I never even had the time or energy to expain to people what was happening to our ill daughter( bipolar disorder) and us, her loving brother and sister, and her parents. NAMI (NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR THE MENTALLY ILL) IS ATTEMPTING TO CORRECT THE SITUATION and bring the same attention and concern to mental illness as is given to breast cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other diseases. We need to organize more, lobby our legislators and demand better medical treatment and housing for our ill family members.
Chris S.
NY
Earley's work, Crazy, began as a research project for an advanced english class of mine, but his "muckraking" made the research come alive. I have since turned my attention more to humanitarian efforts and this book has made me painfully aware of the sad state of affairs we live in. Coming from a family where mental illness is all too familiar, I find Earley's writing both personable as Pete the father, and compelling, as Pete Earley the reporter. This work is a true eye opener and is one of the best reads I have ever encountered. The topic of the treatment of the mentally ill is one that is quite unapproachable and material on the subject is hard to come by. Earley's work is a precious jewel, for anyone.
Kudos to you Earley.
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This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!