Books I'd Like to Read / Assignment 7

WorldCat

On the books tab, I searched for "asylums in the United States" and found the first book on my list:

1) The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States by Carla Yanni

I chose this book because the summary described it as addressing the "American medical establishment's century-long preoccupation with therapeutic architecture as a way to cure social ills," which sounds exactly like a book I would like to read.  I find this topic so fascinating because the "American medical establishment" has changed its "preoccupations" so drastically throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Next, I searched for "history of mental illness" and found the following:

2) Madness: A Brief History by Roy Porter

3) Madness: An American History of Mental Illness and Its Treatment by Mary DeYoung

I chose these two because I am interested in the history of the treatment of mental illness, and these titles tell me that the books will attempt to provide exactly that.  A review from Goodreads was available on WorldCat for Mr. Porter's book.  It was a highly critical review from someone who said she downgraded the number of stars from five to two.  She exposed the biases that even the most scholarly writers can have when tackling such expansive subjects as the history of mental illness.  For example, she pointed out that notable figures in psychiatry were not given equal attention.  This person appears to be an authoritative reviewer; however, her criticism did not deter me from adding the book to my list.  I would like to judge the book myself.

Google Books

I searched for "history of mental illness" and found these books:

4) Madness to Mental Illness: A History of the Royal College of Psychiatrists by RCPsych Publications

5) Victorian Lunatics: A Social Epidemiology of Mental Illness in Mid-Nineteenth Century England by Marlene Ann Arieno

I chose these two because it is always interesting to observe the similarities between the treatment of mental illness in the UK and in the US.

Library Thing

This time, I searched for the title of a book I have already read, Susan Sheehan's Is There No Place on Earth for Me?.  I am interested in reading similar books, and Library Thing did not disappoint with a list of recommendations based on the book I searched for, including a few good ones that I have also read.  Out of this list, I chose the following:

6) Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and The Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill by Robert Whitaker

7) The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness by Lori Schiller

8) The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness by Elyn R. Saks

I can honestly say that the mostly positive, intelligent member reviews increased my interest in reading these books.  Library Thing, like Google Books, provides links to buy the book, and it also includes a link to WorldCat to find it in a library.

Goodreads

Similar to Library Thing, I searched for a great book I have already read: Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America's Premier Mental Hospital by Alex Beam in an attempt to find related books.  Goodreads does not have a recommendations section per se, but there is a "readers also enjoyed" section from which I chose the following:

9) Women of the Asylum: Voices From Behind the Walls, 1840-1945 by Jeffrey Geller

10) Crazy All the Time: On the Psych Ward of Bellevue Hospital by Frederick L. Covan

Again, community reviews combined with brief summaries caused me to add these books to my list.  Reviews have a way of amplifying your already existing interest in a book.  My only criticism of Goodreads is that it does not provide you with links to buy or borrow the book.  I'm relatively new to the site, so maybe that is not its focus.  It appears to be more of a bookmarking site (for books).

My personal opinion is that Library Thing combines the functionality of Google Books with the fun of Goodreads, so I would say that I enjoyed using Library Thing the most.  It is probably best for discovery.  WorldCat and Google Books are more useful if you already know what you are looking for or if you are looking for theses and dissertations and annual reports, for example, in addition to books.

Library of Congress / Assignment 6

To continue my quest for historical photographs of Athens State Hospital, I tried the same search on the Library of Congress's Prints & Photographs Online Catalog: "Athens State Hospital."  At first, I was somewhat surprised to get no results.  Next, I tried "Athens Asylum," which yielded one unrelated result for the US Naval Asylum.  Then I got it.  The Library of Congress is a federal resource, so surely its collection will include photos of St. Elizabeth's Hospital, the only federally owned hospital for the insane.

Sure enough, "St. Elizabeths Hospital" gave me 23 results.  Mostly abandoned, St. Elizabeth's holds much of the same allure as Athens and many others.  Once again, I was primarily looking for interior photographs.  Most of the results focused on a single building: the cow barn, Hagan Hall, B Building, C Building, etc.  Each result had a number of black and white exterior and interior photos and other documents describing the physical characteristics of the building.  What is different about these photos is that they were clearly taken when the buildings were in operation.  Judging by interior design and the cars parked outside, I would say the photos were taken in the 1970s.

I am satisfied with the results.  The focus of this collection is clearly architectural; the goal of the photos is to capture the buildings and nothing else.  This does not mean that a viewer cannot have an emotional reaction, but when compared to the work of most urban explorers, I get the impression that these photographs are devoid of bias one way or another over the building's condition or what took place inside.

My only criticism is that the About This Item tab includes no information about the subject being photographed.  I understand that the point is to describe the collection; however, I would have appreciated a little background on each building, especially since I have not been able to find such information elsewhere.  For example, what was B Building for?  Who or what occupied Hagan Hall?  Also, I found it interesting that every result said "Documentation compiled after 1933."  In my opinion, it would be much more helpful to include exactly when the photos were taken, if known.  I also think it's important to note that the Web site points out that this catalog is not exhaustive.  The Prints & Photographs Division has more than 14 million items.  This is certainly a collection that should be visited repeatedly simply to see what has been added lately.