Why read Conservatorship?

Book cover of Conservatorship

Book description

Winner, 2024 Eliot Freidson Outstanding Publication Award, Medical Sociology Section, American Sociological Association

Is involuntary psychiatric treatment the solution to the intertwined crises of untreated mental illness, homelessness, and addiction? In recent years, politicians and advocates have sought to expand the use of conservatorships, a legal tool used to force…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Conservatorship as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Owen Whooley

Author

Conservatorship is about the dysfunctional conservatorship system that has evolved in the wake of deinstitutionalization – a “system” that yields capricious consequences. In his deep accounting of the pathologies of this system, Barnard achieves a rare feat in the controversy over coerced treatment. Rather than succumb to polemical logic of the debate over forced treatment, he offers a measured analysis that cuts to the core of the mess we are in. In doing so, he reveals the kind of suffering our mental health systems – or lack thereof – create.

From Owen's 3 favorite reads in 2024.