Treatment Advocacy Center’s Fall Reading List
The weather is cooling down and everyone's back at school and hitting the library. A perfect time to settle in with a good book that sheds light on severe mental illness. Here are some recomendations from Treatment Advocacy Center's staff. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did!
“The Best Minds,” by Jonathan Rosen
From the moment I started reading this book I couldn’t put it down, tearing through nearly 600 pages in less than two days. Shaped by his personal experience, Rosen’s book brings a multi-focused perspective to the history of how various movements shaped our treatment of people with severe mental illness, leading to the frequent tragedies we see unfolding all around us today. “The Best Minds” was truly a revelation, and I cannot recommend it highly enough for anyone who wants to understand how such noble intentions went so badly astray, and what the awful human cost has been. - Executive Director Lisa Dailey
“He Came in with It: A Portrait of Motherhood and Madness,” by Miriam Feldman
I had the privilege of reading Mimi’s Feldman’s memoir prior to its publication. I’m not surprised by its quick rise to top of numerous “must read” lists because I couldn’t put it down. One of the moms from the popular podcast series about schizophrenia, “Three Moms in the Trenches,” Feldman welcomes readers to join her family as they try to figure out how to keep everyone alive when severe mental illness afflicts one and impacts all. A professional artist, Feldman highlights how the shocking shortfalls of our mental health system can unspool even a very creative, adaptable, and tightly knit family. I got to know and love each family member through Feldman’s eyes. I find myself rooting for each of them still because the book welcomed me into their family with open arms. - Family Resource and Advocacy Manager Jerri Clark
“Parable of the Sower,” by Octavia Butler
It’s a near-future fiction novel set in a post-apocalyptic Earth heavily affected by climate change and social inequality. The book’s protagonist is a young woman who can physically feel the pain of others and becomes displaced from her home. Though not about SMI directly, reading it reminded me how important empathy is to a just and equitable society, and tackling that inequity and inequality is a big theme in our work.
- AOT Implementation Coordinator Brooke Gentry
“No Human Contact,” by Pete Earley
This book features the stories of two men, both serving life sentences, who have been condemned to the harshest of all environments: solitary confinement. Through their stories, you see the harshness of the conditions imposed on them inside the prison but you also get a glimpse into the humanity of the men serving time. This book is eye opening and unsettling, but an important read for those of us advocating for criminal legal system reform and treatment of SMI and trauma.
- Director of Advocacy Nina Richtman
"The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease," by Jonathan Metzl
As someone interested in the intersection of mental illness and racial justice, I found "The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease" to be a worthwhile read. This book offers a historical perspective on how the segregation and racism of the Jim Crow era have influenced the national perception of schizophrenia. It also gives us a glimpse of the work that still needs to be done to eliminate racial disparities in the diagnosis and treatment of severe mental illness.
- Research Associate Shanti Silver
“While You Were Out,” by Meg Kissinger
Meg Kissinger's new memoir, "While you were out," is just like her exceptional investigative journalism—captivating, genuine and thought-provoking. Kissinger's memoir tells the story of life growing up in the 1960s with loving parents and seven siblings and the persistent taboo of talking about mental illness struggles. While serious mental illness nearly broke the family, love and humor carried them through.
- Director of Research Elizabeth Sinclair Hancq
“The Color of Law,” by Richard Rothstein
Whenever I read about racial disparities in the US, I’m haunted by the parallels and intersections shared with our broken mental health system. Treatment Advocacy Center’s mission focuses on dismantling barriers to treatment for severe mental illness.
“The Color of Law” by Richard Rothstein breaks down the U.S.’s history of legal housing discrimination through a racial lens. I recommend this book because housing, after access to treatment, has been one of the most heartbreaking barriers to recovery for families like mine.
SMI advocates will find a shared and interconnected legacy of marginalization that affects all individuals with a diagnosis of SMI, regardless of race. When advocates consider race, and how housing impacts my loved ones differently, they will see how an individual of color with a diagnosis of SMI finds their access to housing further compounded by yet another broken system. It’s an informative legal read of how our racial history of housing segregation has helped shape the hell scape of housing crisis from California to Florida.
- Senior Legislative and Policy Counsel Sabah Muhammad 
“Malady of the Mind,” by Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has a loved one with schizophrenia. Dr. Lieberman hits on the three biggest obstacles in our system of care: family inclusion, HIPAA misunderstandings, and anosognosia (lack of insight). If all clinicians, policymakers, and the public understood these three factors and practiced them, I truly believe there would be vast improvement in the system of care and quality of life for people who have schizophrenia, their families, and society. Dr. Lieberman understands what families need for their loved ones.
- Senior Family Resource and Advocacy Manager Kathy Day