Out of the Shadows
This book is concerned with the social implications of the deinstitutionalization of people with serious and dangerous mental illness. Author E. Fuller Torrey draws on nearly forty years of clinical and research experience to explore solutions to America's mental illness problems and the reasons these solutions are not pursued. He separates "mental illness" (schizophrenia, manic-depressive illness, and other brain-based disorders) from "mental health" (the "worried well, " and people suffering from quality-of-life and emotional problems). This compassionate study provides a complete analysis of how the mental health system has failed and the far-reaching repercussions of this failure, such as homelessness, violence in the community, and the strain on families of the mentally ill. Controversial and compelling, this book offers a unique perspective on the current state of managing the mentally ill and a plan for the future.