Upfronts:The Last Asylum

By Barbara Taylor

In July 1988, Canadian-born historian Barbara Taylor was admitted into Friern, a once-notorious asylum for the insane. The journey that took her there began when, overwhelmed by anxiety as she completed her doctoral studies in London, England, she found relief by dosing herself with booze and barbiturates. She then embarked on what would turn out to be a decades-long course of psychoanalysis.The analysis dredged up painful memories—of a philandering father, a largely absent but demanding mother, and, among other things, a succession of nannies back in Saskatoon. In the course of her illness and her struggle to recover from it, Taylor would twice be readmitted to Friern, and she took refuge in a variety of hostels and halfway houses before finding a semblance of stability and peace. This searingly honest, thought-provoking, and beautifully written memoir is the narrative of the author’s years of madness, set inside the wider story of our treatment of psychiatric illness from the great age of asylums to the current era of community care, big pharma, and quick fixes. It is a meditation on her own experience, but also that of millions of others in Europe and in North America who have suffered, are suffering, and will suffer from mental illness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Mar 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9780143192435

Barbara Taylor

BARBARA TAYLOR is Reader in History at the University of East London, UK, and author of Eve and the New Jerusalem (1983) and Mary Wollstonecraft and the Feminist Imagination (2003). She was Director of the 'Feminism and Enlightenment' research project (1998-2001).

Book preview

2477.

ONE

Beginning

19 November 1977. I had stayed up too long and thought too much. That was what I told myself later. I had spent all day and all evening—as I spent nearly every day and evening— writing my doctoral thesis. At about eleven, as I was contemplating bed, I had a good idea, a fantastic idea, an idea so wonderful that it made all my previous ideas seem thin and silly. Excited, I tested it: would it hold up? I was sure that it would (it did—it became the basis of my first book), and my excitement became overwhelming. I lay awake all night, breathing fast, heart lurching. The sleepless night segued into a day of exhaustion and anxiety, followed by an endless stream of such nights and days. I had been an easy sleeper; now insomnia was my bedfellow, and my anxiety levels climbed steadily. A lightless misery engulfed me. The world drained of warmth and colour; a cold blankness was everywhere. This went on and on as—armed now with many good ideas—I continued to labour away on my thesis.

I had always been an occasional hair-puller, but now I yanked out hairs constantly as I worked. I pictured myself going bald, and began to wear a headscarf when I was writing. You put on your scarf and go grey, a concerned friend remarked.

In 1980, as I crawled to the end of the dissertation, I landed my first academic job, teaching history in a small provincial college. Such jobs weren’t easy to get, and I was very pleased. I took a room in the college town and started commuting, spending weekends in London. It was a nice, friendly college—a good place to launch an academic career. But I could barely manage

Reviews for Upfronts:The Last Asylum

[writermala · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The book Jacket says, "The Lived Past is never really past." Barbara Taylor has written the story of her past - 'a memoir of madness' as she calls it. One cannot but feel compassionate towards her; but is all her suffering really necessary? I would question her decision to undergo/continue with psychoanalysis. Given the progress in psychiatry and treatment of psychiatric condition there was absolutely no reason for Taylor to go through all that she did. Also, the title is misleading. The book deals not only with "The Last Asylum" but is also a history of Psychiatric Hospitals in London. Not all readers want to read about these. One also wonders if the sexual overtones present throughout are real or thrown in to perk readers' interest.