The Honest Reviewer

I read every word. I thought I’d be able to identify more with the characters, but couldn’t. I was working as a clinical psychologist on a psychiatric ward in 1962. Block’s father was hospitalized for manic-depressive illness in that year.

The novel is based on interviews with his grandmother, reading things his grandfather had written and some research. “Milieu therapy” was popular around ’62. What Block describes could be an extreme version of what I saw. The staff I knew was little like the staff he described. I was surprised his father got electroshock. In the Veterans Administration it was little used after the 50’s.

The Mayflower Home of the book was a high priced for profit privately run hospital. That probably accounts for its being different than my experience in the VA. The book being a mixture of fact and Block’s imagination accounts for differences also.

The novel demonstrates fallibility of humans: patients, psychiatrists, psychologists, family, everyone. I hope readers apply this to themselves. My memories of 50 years ago may be distorted. Perhaps I am being self protective. I believe a very high percentage of psychiatric and psychological treatment is ineffective.

Block’s grandfather and others avoiding prescribed medications is frequent. All psychiatric medications, including sleeping pills and pain pills, have effects I and many other find unpleasant or unfortunate. They dull the senses and impair mental functioning. Many appreciate this effect and become addicted.

I give the book 9-10 rating. It is labeled as a novel, and as fiction. As such it may fascinate both men and women more than it did me. For women, the portrayal of the author’s mother is good. For men, the father can be a good read.


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