Will I love Sons, Daughters, and Sidewalk Psychotics?

This book compares the "haves" and "have nots" in the world of mental health treatments. Gong has revealed our society’s bifurcated approach to serious mental illness – one system for the rich that works to modify the soul, another for the poor that seeks merely to minimize public nuisances. And ironically and counterintuitively, he shows that poor individuals living with serious mental illness are granted greater freedom.

The focus of this intensely experienced and written ethnography is contrasting the public vs. private sectors of services for persons suffering the dual tragedies of serious mental illness and housing precarity. The title reflects this distinction by describing the private world of elite treatment programs costing $10,000 or more per month to treat the troubled sons and daughters of Los Angeles families.

In contrast, the public sector—serving 'sidewalk psychotics’ visible in the city’s Skid Row—is barely able to offer treatment and support to help them survive. Gong writes up-close stories of the lives of impoverished street dwellers and their outreach… show more.