If this wasn't an amazing enough book, then I find out that it is based on a true story. Wow. This historical fiction set in the 1900's and opens with Lady Anne believing she has been kidnapped, only to find out she is in a mental institution. Don't read too much about this book but, if you are at all interested, watch the book trailer. Amidst the many twists and turns it also delves into the approach to mental illness in that era. A quick easy read that had me coming back for more. I could see that this would make a great book club discussion.
This is from the website:
A deep and riveting psychological thriller set within an historical context, packed full of twists and turns, The Medea Complex explores the nature of the human psyche: what possesses us, drives us, and how love, passion, and hope for the future can drive us to insanity.
I was fortunate enough to have a friend who was a clinical psychologist who had worked in the 1950s in a state mental institution in Georgia. He wrote a book about his experience there and the atrocities and honored me with the request to be one of his proofreaders. Women were committed by their husbands for post partum depression, electroshock therapy was far too common a treatment, lobotomies were too frequent, there were children born as a result of staff taking advantage of patients, etc. He was such a compassionate man that he felt the story had to be told and he published the book himself through a vanity press.
ReplyDeleteI just found your comment (Google+ is so frustrating!) Wow. How incredible to hear the experiences of your friend. So horrific. That is amazing the things that you shared. If you know the title of the book, I would love to see if I could find it. I truly hope those times are in the past. So horrid.
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