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?

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.

If you love Conservatorship...

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December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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