Asylum
By William Seabrook and Joe Ollmann
4/5
()
About this ebook
"Perhaps the most honest and haunting accounts of the struggle for mental health in literature." — Observer
This dramatic memoir recounts an eight-month stay at a Westchester mental hospital in the early 1930s. William Seabrook, a renowned journalist and explorer, voluntarily committed himself to an asylum for treatment of acute alcoholism. His sincere, self-critical appraisal of his experiences offers a highly interesting look at addiction and treatment in the days before Alcoholics Anonymous and other modern programs.
"Very few people could be as honest as Seabrook is here," noted The New York Times, "and it is honesty plus the talent Seabrook has already had that makes a book of this sort first-rate." This edition of the soul-baring narrative features a new graphic novel–style introduction by Joe Ollmann, who also created the cover art.
"With zombies in vogue and his books coming back onto the market after decades out of print, maybe old Willie Seabrook, the lost king of the weird, can finally get the recognition and infamy he earned." ― Benjamin Welton, Vice.com
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Reviews for Asylum
7 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5William Seabrook, Lost Generation travel writer, had himself committed to an asylum to prevent his drinking himself to death. Asylum is his clear-eyed and unsentimental record of his seven month stay in the mental hospital.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5For those that want to get a glimpse of how the world treated Alcoholism before AA then Seabrook's biography is a great starting place. I've been wanting to read it ever since I heard it mentioned in the Big Book (1st edition) story Women Suffer Too. Seabrook tells of his treatment while in an Asylum. The book itself is in need of a good editor as he tends to chase rabbits; however, the tale itself is still haunting and powerful. Perhaps the saddest part is Seabrook has glimpses of some of AA's basic wisdom and yet it is just beyond his grasp or the doctors and system of the Asylum discount it and thus lead him right back into his troubles.Of note: pg 147. Example of powerlessness - "I had known I was "lost" and wanted to be "saved." I had known that my own strength, my own will, could no longer save me. I had been willing to "abase" myself, to relinquish myself, my life, my will, my body into hands stronger than my own. I was through, and I knew it." He told his doctor about this and he "didn't like it any too well. He felt there was some hidden cowardice in it and afraid to face life."pg. 250 "I explained to the doctor I had dug as deep into myself as I could and that I was afraid my trade had been the cause of my drunkenness. I was afraid that what had driven me to drink was the fear that I could never write well enough for it to make any difference whether I wrote at all or not......" The Doc's reply "No, I don't think you're fear has anything to do with it." AH!!! I wanted to scream at the psych doctor.Sadly, they told Seabrook he could go back to drinking safely, which he did not do, and thus 10 years later OD in 1945 before his writing could achieve the fame it deserved.