This book is excellent. Try to find it if you can. The author is a woman who has worked in the system, and isn't afraid to say what's wrong with it, without bitterness, without rancor, with complete honesty. Mental illness has been an enigma in all societies historically, for a very long time, and we haven't come to terms with it even now. What keeps the book from being the complete success I wish it was is that her "solutions," such as they are, are unclear. I'm also not sure that I agree with them as much as I do understand them. But I'm glad she took a brave step not many people have been willing to take so far. I wish there were more like her. Her research is thorough, though there were some missing pieces I would have included, like what happened to the mentally ill in Nazi Germany, and those from Mendocino state hospital. But I'll live that for my own book. Suffice it to say this is a good place to start. There's much to be done.