Agnes's Jacket: A Psychologist's Search For The Meanings Of Madness

One of the most remarkable artifacts to emerge from the world of madness is the intricately embroidered jacket of a German seamstress who had been locked away in an asylum in the late 1800s. The words that Agnes Richter painstakingly stitched into nearly every inch of the garment to record her experiences have eluded scholars' many attempts to decipher them. For Gail Hornstein, the jacket is symbolic of madness itself, an experience rich with meaning, if only we can learn to unlock its code. In this luminous work, Hornstein seeks to penetrate the mysteries shrouding a condition that affects at least one in five Americans each year, nearly half of whom do not seek treatment. She takes the reader on a fascinating journey, first into the literature of madness--the numerous personal narratives in which those who suffer try to make sense of what is happening to them--and then into the support meetings of the vibrant underground network of "psychiatric survivor groups." A vast gulf exists between the way contemporary medicine views psychiatric illness--as permanent brain diseases that can be managed pharmacologically but not cured--and the much more hopeful individual and collective experiences of the mentally ill themselves. "Agnes's Jacket "helps us bridge that gulf and come closer to a meaningful understanding--not only of madness but also the bewildering parts of our own minds.