Out of Bedlam

Introduction: news from the front in the way against mental illness. Part 1 1940-1970 how deinstitutionalization supposedly took place: the historical context of deinstitutionalization - it would have happened anyway; may the sales force be with you - psychotropic medication, the new magic bullet; what happened to the myth that mental illness is a myth?; treatment of choice - community care (whether it exists or not); how deinstitutionalization never saved us a dime. Part 2 1970 and beyond the aftermath of deinstitutionalization: where the patients really went; maybe it's easier to be homeless if you're crazy; true or false? deranged criminals are at large and the mentally ill in jail; backwards into history - waiting for moral treatment to be rediscovered; the mental health bureaucracy - who's in charge here?; the system in action - numbers, not people; a twentieth-century ship of fools.