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The Loony-Bin Trip
A personal story of Kate Millett's struggle to regain control of her life after falling under an ascription of manic depression.
320 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1990
146 people are currently reading
3789 people want to read
About the author
Kate Millett
38 books320 followersKatherine Murray "Kate" Millett was an American feminist writer, educator, artist, and activist. She attended Oxford University and was the first American woman to be awarded a postgraduate degree with first-class honors by St. Hilda's. She has been described as "a seminal influence on second-wave feminism", and is best known for her 1970 book Sexual Politics," which was her doctoral dissertation at Columbia University. Journalist Liza Featherstone attributes previously unimaginable "legal abortion, greater professional equality between the sexes and a sexual freedom" being made possible partially due to Millett's efforts.
The feminist, human rights, peace, civil rights, and anti-psychiatry movements have been some of Millett's key causes. Her books were motivated by her activism, such as woman's rights and mental health reform, and several were autobiographical memoirs that explored her sexuality, mental health, and relationships. Mother Millett and The Loony Bin Trip, for instance, dealt with family issues and the times when she was involuntarily committed. Besides appearing in a number of documentaries, she produced Three Lives and wrote Not a Love Story: A Film about Pornography. In the 1960s and 1970s, Millett taught at Waseda University, Bryn Mawr College, Barnard College, and University of California, Berkeley.
Millett was raised in Minnesota and has spent most of her adult life in Manhattan and the Woman's Art Colony, which became the Millett Center for the Arts in 2012, that she established in Poughkeepsie, New York. Self-identified as bisexual, Millett was married to sculptor Fumio Yoshimura from 1965 to 1985 and had relationships with women, one of whom was the inspiration for her book Sita. She has continued to work as an activist, writer, and artist. Some of her later written works are The Politics of Cruelty (1994), about state-sanctioned torture in many countries, and a book about the relationship with her mother in Mother Millett (2001). Between 2011 and 2013 she has won the Lambda Pioneer Award for Literature, received Yoko Ono's Courage Award for the Arts, and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
The feminist, human rights, peace, civil rights, and anti-psychiatry movements have been some of Millett's key causes. Her books were motivated by her activism, such as woman's rights and mental health reform, and several were autobiographical memoirs that explored her sexuality, mental health, and relationships. Mother Millett and The Loony Bin Trip, for instance, dealt with family issues and the times when she was involuntarily committed. Besides appearing in a number of documentaries, she produced Three Lives and wrote Not a Love Story: A Film about Pornography. In the 1960s and 1970s, Millett taught at Waseda University, Bryn Mawr College, Barnard College, and University of California, Berkeley.
Millett was raised in Minnesota and has spent most of her adult life in Manhattan and the Woman's Art Colony, which became the Millett Center for the Arts in 2012, that she established in Poughkeepsie, New York. Self-identified as bisexual, Millett was married to sculptor Fumio Yoshimura from 1965 to 1985 and had relationships with women, one of whom was the inspiration for her book Sita. She has continued to work as an activist, writer, and artist. Some of her later written works are The Politics of Cruelty (1994), about state-sanctioned torture in many countries, and a book about the relationship with her mother in Mother Millett (2001). Between 2011 and 2013 she has won the Lambda Pioneer Award for Literature, received Yoko Ono's Courage Award for the Arts, and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
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February 2, 2025
This dated book is the brainchild of the anti-psychiatry movement which was perhaps most notably spearheaded by the innovative British psychiatrist R.D. Laing. Throughout it bears the obviously telling voices of a series of bipolar rants.
Personally, I've no longer much pride in my own such misplaced enthusiasms from back in my youth. I say thank heaven for my meds, Kate.
And, yes, for my so-humanly benighted doctors!
I've got news for you, Kate, my poor embattled and bedeviled late friend: It's not a Trip, that "Looney bin." It's really justified and absolutely necessary if you want to finally wake up - far beyond the land of your devils. Take Your Meds.
Your "devils" are in fact a mere symptom of a much deeper problem. Because you see, your doctors are THEMSELVES as wounded as you. NONE of us is well: It's called shared sin:
The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That questions the distempered part.
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer's art
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.
Now, I know you had no time for the doctor's "sharp compassion... ."
You believed all along in the strength of your OTHER tormentors: your Technicolor gruesome dreams. You would have been wiser far to take your meds and withstand them.
Some dreams lead you nowhere. They're mere symbols, personified by our minds as friendly demons. You're getting nowhere by being angry when they're taken away. Only digging the hole that spawned them deeper.
Such crazy truculence is not kid's stuff. It can kill. And worse, it can give you a weirdly exalted love of flying high in your distended ego. 'Pride goes before a fall' means what it says.
These days I tell people in their emotional enthusiasm: don't go there!
Reality is the best teacher, Kate.
Find it, wherever you are now...
You know, there's a Great new Apple TV Series that's gonna start streaming on YouTube in January, with the legendary Harrison Ford as a soul-scarred psychiatrist who is trying to fix the world, one patient at a time!
You can take it from Han Solo, friends - find a good one and STICK to him.
Or risk drowning in the confusion of a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World!
I'm not joking.
For as Frank Sinatra said, you must now:
Put your dreams away
For another day
And (love) will take their place
In your heart!
Wishing on a star
Never got you far -
So NOW it’s time to make
A New Start.
Personally, I've no longer much pride in my own such misplaced enthusiasms from back in my youth. I say thank heaven for my meds, Kate.
And, yes, for my so-humanly benighted doctors!
I've got news for you, Kate, my poor embattled and bedeviled late friend: It's not a Trip, that "Looney bin." It's really justified and absolutely necessary if you want to finally wake up - far beyond the land of your devils. Take Your Meds.
Your "devils" are in fact a mere symptom of a much deeper problem. Because you see, your doctors are THEMSELVES as wounded as you. NONE of us is well: It's called shared sin:
The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That questions the distempered part.
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer's art
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.
Now, I know you had no time for the doctor's "sharp compassion... ."
You believed all along in the strength of your OTHER tormentors: your Technicolor gruesome dreams. You would have been wiser far to take your meds and withstand them.
Some dreams lead you nowhere. They're mere symbols, personified by our minds as friendly demons. You're getting nowhere by being angry when they're taken away. Only digging the hole that spawned them deeper.
Such crazy truculence is not kid's stuff. It can kill. And worse, it can give you a weirdly exalted love of flying high in your distended ego. 'Pride goes before a fall' means what it says.
These days I tell people in their emotional enthusiasm: don't go there!
Reality is the best teacher, Kate.
Find it, wherever you are now...
You know, there's a Great new Apple TV Series that's gonna start streaming on YouTube in January, with the legendary Harrison Ford as a soul-scarred psychiatrist who is trying to fix the world, one patient at a time!
You can take it from Han Solo, friends - find a good one and STICK to him.
Or risk drowning in the confusion of a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World!
I'm not joking.
For as Frank Sinatra said, you must now:
Put your dreams away
For another day
And (love) will take their place
In your heart!
Wishing on a star
Never got you far -
So NOW it’s time to make
A New Start.
August 4, 2008
this is my second time around, after many years, and i still find this books exceptional. first of all, kate millett writes beautifully. this woman's had many careers -- artist, activist, feminist theorist, writer -- but if her talents resided only in putting words in sequence and saying amazing things with them, she should still be qualified as a genius.
this book oozes pain. if you cannot deal with pain, you should not read it, otherwise you'll find it long, verbose, overwritten, or self-indulgent. autobiographical writing about pain is possibly self-indulgent by definition: the writer indulges one's own distress enough to put it down on paper and present it to everyone's eye to contemplate, hopefully with sympathy. it's hard to be detached, ironic, funny, or lithe if you write about horror. it's hard to convey the sense of "being over it" (isn't this what we require of those who talk about their suffering, a sort of heroic self-transcendence?). kate millett has all the reasons in the world not to be over it. it is thanks to that fact that she isn't anywhere near over it that those who have experienced her selfsame pain can read this and find themselves home. kate millett provides a home for a category of people who feel so dispossessed and persecuted, they think they are never entitled to a home ever again.
in more than 300 thickly printed pages, kate millett describes what happened to her when her next-of-kins decided she was bipolar (they didn't mind about the depression, only about the mania) and had her hospitalized. the devastation millett, by then an accomplished and famous writer and artist, not to mention a university professor, felt at this sudden loss of autonomy and personhood is heartbreaking. her world crumbled. when you are labeled with "certifiable" (as in by a doctor) insanity, anything you say will be used against you. it is perhaps the most insidious and unfightable form of invalidation. it erodes, not only your standing in the world, but also your faith in others and yourself.
to express this horrible experience of pervasive hostility millett needs lots of words. the words are beautiful and on many occasions one finds they say things one would be hard-pressed to find the words for. she makes you want to grab your pencil and underline. she makes you want to memorize.
what strikes me most upon this second reading is the way in which millett produces verbal magic in the dark. in a way, she is writing in a lightless room, hoping that what she feels under her hands are in fact a blank sheet and a pen full of ink. she writes from a place in which her words have stopped making sounds. she is crazy, after all. why should her protestations, her anguish, her pain be taken as anything other than the rantings of a madwoman? her faith in words and readership is miraculous. she is as tough as nails.
the writing is rich, slow, yet urgent. she writes like her life depends on it, yet at the same time she dwells on sensations, more often than not, perhaps surprisingly, delicious sensation of pleasure. hands, the land, the dirt, art, colors, wine, food, bodies. she is not shy. all the pleasure is sexual and all of it is on the page. the pleasure demands to be written even more than the pain, because it is so precarious yet so miraculous, so terribly precious, so inexplicably life-giving. trust those who have been killed again and again (forced thorazine and straight-jackets will do that to you as surely as guns and knives) to know the pleasures of the skin, the eye, of simple survival.
she also depicts an intensely paranoid world. anyone around her, at any time, could pick up the phone and tell her family that she's gone down the deep end again. her inner fights with her (much justified and realistic) paranoia are one of the most powerfully disturbing moments of this book, especially when the objects of this pervasive, soul-destroying suspicion are lesbian lovers on a reclaimed piece of land on which a feminist art colony is being built. these are not the people who will call the man. these are the people who call the man. if these people call the man, nowhere is safe.
i hope my students will like this. i hope they will appreciate how hard it is to put together beautiful, meaningful language out of forced silencing, and indulge in the pleasure of millett's words as much as i did.
this book oozes pain. if you cannot deal with pain, you should not read it, otherwise you'll find it long, verbose, overwritten, or self-indulgent. autobiographical writing about pain is possibly self-indulgent by definition: the writer indulges one's own distress enough to put it down on paper and present it to everyone's eye to contemplate, hopefully with sympathy. it's hard to be detached, ironic, funny, or lithe if you write about horror. it's hard to convey the sense of "being over it" (isn't this what we require of those who talk about their suffering, a sort of heroic self-transcendence?). kate millett has all the reasons in the world not to be over it. it is thanks to that fact that she isn't anywhere near over it that those who have experienced her selfsame pain can read this and find themselves home. kate millett provides a home for a category of people who feel so dispossessed and persecuted, they think they are never entitled to a home ever again.
in more than 300 thickly printed pages, kate millett describes what happened to her when her next-of-kins decided she was bipolar (they didn't mind about the depression, only about the mania) and had her hospitalized. the devastation millett, by then an accomplished and famous writer and artist, not to mention a university professor, felt at this sudden loss of autonomy and personhood is heartbreaking. her world crumbled. when you are labeled with "certifiable" (as in by a doctor) insanity, anything you say will be used against you. it is perhaps the most insidious and unfightable form of invalidation. it erodes, not only your standing in the world, but also your faith in others and yourself.
to express this horrible experience of pervasive hostility millett needs lots of words. the words are beautiful and on many occasions one finds they say things one would be hard-pressed to find the words for. she makes you want to grab your pencil and underline. she makes you want to memorize.
what strikes me most upon this second reading is the way in which millett produces verbal magic in the dark. in a way, she is writing in a lightless room, hoping that what she feels under her hands are in fact a blank sheet and a pen full of ink. she writes from a place in which her words have stopped making sounds. she is crazy, after all. why should her protestations, her anguish, her pain be taken as anything other than the rantings of a madwoman? her faith in words and readership is miraculous. she is as tough as nails.
the writing is rich, slow, yet urgent. she writes like her life depends on it, yet at the same time she dwells on sensations, more often than not, perhaps surprisingly, delicious sensation of pleasure. hands, the land, the dirt, art, colors, wine, food, bodies. she is not shy. all the pleasure is sexual and all of it is on the page. the pleasure demands to be written even more than the pain, because it is so precarious yet so miraculous, so terribly precious, so inexplicably life-giving. trust those who have been killed again and again (forced thorazine and straight-jackets will do that to you as surely as guns and knives) to know the pleasures of the skin, the eye, of simple survival.
she also depicts an intensely paranoid world. anyone around her, at any time, could pick up the phone and tell her family that she's gone down the deep end again. her inner fights with her (much justified and realistic) paranoia are one of the most powerfully disturbing moments of this book, especially when the objects of this pervasive, soul-destroying suspicion are lesbian lovers on a reclaimed piece of land on which a feminist art colony is being built. these are not the people who will call the man. these are the people who call the man. if these people call the man, nowhere is safe.
i hope my students will like this. i hope they will appreciate how hard it is to put together beautiful, meaningful language out of forced silencing, and indulge in the pleasure of millett's words as much as i did.
July 19, 2019
Kate Millett is most famous for her feminist text Sexual Politics, she help develop modern ideas of patriarchy. She was also an artist and sculptor and an activist in a number of areas. This book however charts Millett’s battles with mental ill health and the anti-psychiatry movement. In 1973 Millett was committed with the assistance of family and friends who were worried about her and diagnosed with what was then called manic depression (now bi-polar). She ended up on Lithium, which has a number of unpleasant side effects.
This book charts a period of time from 1980 where Millett decided to come off lithium. She was living for the summer on a farm she owned with her lover Sophie and a group of younger women who had come to stay and help out for board and lodging. Millett charts the summer from her point of view along with attempts by family and friends to get her committed again. Then there is a trip to Ireland which goes disastrously wrong when Millett ended up being committed to a very unpleasant asylum and had to be rescued by friends. On her return to the US she entered a deep depression and ended up back on Lithium. That is the bare outline of the book which is told from her own perspective by Millett. She came off lithium for good a few years later.
Millett argued that conditions like bi-polar and schizophrenia are labels society and psychiatry places on people who do not behave in conventional or socially acceptable ways and that the labels themselves cause many of the problems, "When you have been told that your mind is unsound, there is a kind of despair that takes over”. The self-fulfilling part of the psychiatric infrastructure is well described when Millett is in the asylum in Ireland:
“Imagine anything at all, for after all one is free to do it here. That is the purpose of this place; it was made for you to be mad in. And when you give in and have a real fine bout, they have won. And then they have their evidence as well. But the temptation in the long hours is hard to resist, and it comes over you like the drowsiness of the powders. . . .
The moments of clarity are the worst. You burn in humiliation remembering yesterday's folderol, your own foolish thoughts. Not the boredom of here, the passive futility of reality, but the flights of fancy, which would convict you, are the evidence that you merit your fate and are here for a purpose. The crime of the imaginary. The lure of madness as illness. And you crumble day by day and admit your guilt. Induced madness. Refuse a pill and you will be tied down and given a hypodermic by force. Enforced irrationality. With all the force of the state behind it, pharmaceutical corporations, and an entrenched bureaucratic psychiatry. Unassailable social beliefs, general throughout the culture. And all the scientific prestige of medicine. Locks, bars, buildings, cops. A massive system.”
This is a disturbing account and a good advertisement for the anti-psychiatry movement. I have long thought there is a good deal to say for the movement and mental health services today still hold many of the same assumptions they did at the time this book was written. Millett describes depression as dread and not mania and argues her depression was more about grief and brokenness, not “madness”.
This is powerfully written and difficult to read at times, but the point Millett is making through her own experiences is valid and I agree with her.
This book charts a period of time from 1980 where Millett decided to come off lithium. She was living for the summer on a farm she owned with her lover Sophie and a group of younger women who had come to stay and help out for board and lodging. Millett charts the summer from her point of view along with attempts by family and friends to get her committed again. Then there is a trip to Ireland which goes disastrously wrong when Millett ended up being committed to a very unpleasant asylum and had to be rescued by friends. On her return to the US she entered a deep depression and ended up back on Lithium. That is the bare outline of the book which is told from her own perspective by Millett. She came off lithium for good a few years later.
Millett argued that conditions like bi-polar and schizophrenia are labels society and psychiatry places on people who do not behave in conventional or socially acceptable ways and that the labels themselves cause many of the problems, "When you have been told that your mind is unsound, there is a kind of despair that takes over”. The self-fulfilling part of the psychiatric infrastructure is well described when Millett is in the asylum in Ireland:
“Imagine anything at all, for after all one is free to do it here. That is the purpose of this place; it was made for you to be mad in. And when you give in and have a real fine bout, they have won. And then they have their evidence as well. But the temptation in the long hours is hard to resist, and it comes over you like the drowsiness of the powders. . . .
The moments of clarity are the worst. You burn in humiliation remembering yesterday's folderol, your own foolish thoughts. Not the boredom of here, the passive futility of reality, but the flights of fancy, which would convict you, are the evidence that you merit your fate and are here for a purpose. The crime of the imaginary. The lure of madness as illness. And you crumble day by day and admit your guilt. Induced madness. Refuse a pill and you will be tied down and given a hypodermic by force. Enforced irrationality. With all the force of the state behind it, pharmaceutical corporations, and an entrenched bureaucratic psychiatry. Unassailable social beliefs, general throughout the culture. And all the scientific prestige of medicine. Locks, bars, buildings, cops. A massive system.”
This is a disturbing account and a good advertisement for the anti-psychiatry movement. I have long thought there is a good deal to say for the movement and mental health services today still hold many of the same assumptions they did at the time this book was written. Millett describes depression as dread and not mania and argues her depression was more about grief and brokenness, not “madness”.
This is powerfully written and difficult to read at times, but the point Millett is making through her own experiences is valid and I agree with her.
November 11, 2021
Un viaje fuerte, introspectivo y analítico sobre las enfermedades mentales. En esta especie de ensayo / memorias sobre el supuesto trastorno bipolar de Kate Millet, ella nos narra un episodio de su vida desde el antes y después de ser ingresada a un psiquiátrico en Irlanda en uno de sus viajes. Desde su inseguridad ante el diagnóstico, la falta de sensibilidad de médicos y personal clínico hasta el desconocimiento de familiares, amigos y parejas sobre comprender todo el proceso que podemos tener las personas con alguna neurodivergencia. Muchas veces es muy muy triste leer esto, hay mucha impotencia que una puede sentir como lectora y como neurodivergente, pero también es cierto que este libro fue escrito después de pasar varios episodios de manía y después depresión que le permitieron a Millet sentir que podía salir de esa. Eso da esperanza.
Me quedo con esto:
“A menos que nos detengamos. Y saltemos de verdad por encima de nuestras supersticiones, chifladura. Demencia. Todavía peor: psicosis, episodios, desórdenes, etc. Deja que la mente sea libre. El pensamiento. El habla, la expresión, la exploración. Que al menos eso lo sea en esta breve y a menudo miserable vida en la que hay tan pocas cosas más libres. Derribar la casa de locos y construir con sus ladrillos teatros o áreas de juego, dejémonos unos a otros en paz. Si no se meten con nosotros, nos apañaremos sin la interferencia de parientes o de la psiquiatría estatal. Como mejor se ayuda a la condición humana: respetándola. Dejemos de tener miedo. De nuestros propios pensamientos, de nuestra mente. De la locura, la nuestra o la de los otros. Deja de temer la mente, sus asombrosas y funciones y fandangos, sus complicaciones y simplificaciones, el extraordinario funcionamiento de su maquinaria: más extraordinario por cuanto no es maquinaria ni predecible. Tan ingeniosa y sorprendente idea tan incierto resultados como la primera pincelada de un cuadro, con el mismo abanico de posibilidades.”
Kate Millet
March 1, 2019
Un relato sobre la locura totalmente diferente a todo lo que he leído hasta ahora. Sin ocultar el sufrimiento y dolor, se muestra irredenta, pero no obcecada. Hay duda, cuestionamiento, exploración. "Escribí Viaje al manicomio", explica en el epílogo, "(...) con la esperanza de renunciar a ese dilema entre locura y no locura". Y también hay mucha poesía.
April 17, 2012
I hated this book to levels that surprised me. I got the feeling that the author wrote the book as proof that she isn't crazy but, instead, I felt trapped inside the mind of someone I'd see wandering the streets, talking to herself. Especially during the first 2/3 of the book, where she's manic. Highly repetitive, paranoid, and booooring. And the chapter about the horse's penis?!? Man, I'm liberal and open minded but that chapter gave me the creeps!!
This book was recommended to me after I completed Prozac Nation. I loved Prozac Nation and, though the author went into far deeper depression than I've ever experienced, I found the book relate-able. By comparison, I felt this book was a highly annoying MESS. Instead of feeling sympathy when the author was committed, I was relieved.
HATED IT!!
This book was recommended to me after I completed Prozac Nation. I loved Prozac Nation and, though the author went into far deeper depression than I've ever experienced, I found the book relate-able. By comparison, I felt this book was a highly annoying MESS. Instead of feeling sympathy when the author was committed, I was relieved.
HATED IT!!
September 27, 2021
De esos raros casos en los que la voz de la locura es escuchada en toda su honestidad.
November 6, 2021
¿No es el suicidio la eutanasia de la depresión?
La primera vez que escribí esto sentí que las personas respondía a ello con un alarmado NO. No sé si quienes dieron respuesta saben lo que es realmente una depresión (no esa mamada de sentirse triste o no bañarse un día porque el novio te terminó).
Este texto me ha hecho pensar respecto a la autonomía corporal, el derecho a la locura y el derecho al suicidio. Es como pensar en defender la vida del no nato, pero no defender la vida de los ya nacidos. Así me parece, defender la vida del suicida pero no la del enfermo mental que atraviesa por una profunda depresión o por una empinada manía. No tiene derecho a responder a sus estadios mentales, aun cuando esté viviendo bajo los efectos de la propia enfermedad.
Kate Millett dice que finalmente adquirió el equilibrio, sin embargo no dice haber estado arrepentida de su historia. De sus manías, de sus profundidades más oscuros. No se inclina a decir qué bueno que no me maté o qué malo que me iba a matar. Porque no pasa eso en la historia, pero sin duda pasaría por su cabeza; o lo contrario, no reniega de sus momentos de manía.
Es una historia densa, que también nos hace cuestionar los extremos en la intervención de la salud mental, la industria farmacéutica, los primeros usos de los químicos para la depresión y sus efectos secundarios.
Finalmente, creo que para mí sólo un telón de fondo, hablamos de Kate Millett la feminista, la mujer que luchó (quizá hasta la locura) por los derechos humanos, y con ello por sus propios derechos de salud.
Un libro que ilustra con bastante claridad el tema de la "locura" vista desde el sistema de salud en aquellos años 70/80.
La primera vez que escribí esto sentí que las personas respondía a ello con un alarmado NO. No sé si quienes dieron respuesta saben lo que es realmente una depresión (no esa mamada de sentirse triste o no bañarse un día porque el novio te terminó).
Este texto me ha hecho pensar respecto a la autonomía corporal, el derecho a la locura y el derecho al suicidio. Es como pensar en defender la vida del no nato, pero no defender la vida de los ya nacidos. Así me parece, defender la vida del suicida pero no la del enfermo mental que atraviesa por una profunda depresión o por una empinada manía. No tiene derecho a responder a sus estadios mentales, aun cuando esté viviendo bajo los efectos de la propia enfermedad.
Kate Millett dice que finalmente adquirió el equilibrio, sin embargo no dice haber estado arrepentida de su historia. De sus manías, de sus profundidades más oscuros. No se inclina a decir qué bueno que no me maté o qué malo que me iba a matar. Porque no pasa eso en la historia, pero sin duda pasaría por su cabeza; o lo contrario, no reniega de sus momentos de manía.
Es una historia densa, que también nos hace cuestionar los extremos en la intervención de la salud mental, la industria farmacéutica, los primeros usos de los químicos para la depresión y sus efectos secundarios.
Finalmente, creo que para mí sólo un telón de fondo, hablamos de Kate Millett la feminista, la mujer que luchó (quizá hasta la locura) por los derechos humanos, y con ello por sus propios derechos de salud.
Un libro que ilustra con bastante claridad el tema de la "locura" vista desde el sistema de salud en aquellos años 70/80.
November 1, 2021
Brutal. En todos los sentidos de la palabra. Qué miedo da el pasado en muchos aspectos y qué bien se retrata aquí. Es brillante como ensayo, pero también como novela. No voy a comentar nada de las ideas que defiende: hay que leerlo. Lo disfruté un montón. El prólogo de Mar García Puig también es brillante.
Subrayé medio libro y anoté, por algún motivo, sólo una cita: "Gánate a tus captores y hazte humana, para que no te golpeen".
Qué ganas de quemar cosas, de recoger flores y bailar y de gritar muchísimo. En cualquier orden o todo a la vez.
Subrayé medio libro y anoté, por algún motivo, sólo una cita: "Gánate a tus captores y hazte humana, para que no te golpeen".
Qué ganas de quemar cosas, de recoger flores y bailar y de gritar muchísimo. En cualquier orden o todo a la vez.
November 22, 2009
I've always been ambivalent about Kate Millett. I was a Women's Studies minor in college, and I read a lot of her ground breaking work. (I think I need to read it again having studied English literature more.) That ambivalence about her all or nothing radical thought spills over into my feelings about this books. A lot of it seems almost Finnegan's Wake-ian in its madness, but she is bipolar and was having a manic episode... although in the end of the book she declares she doesn't believe in mental illness. The section about the hospital in Ireland was interesting, as was the deterioration but ultimate salvation of the women's colon (which still exists today). But overall...
Well, didn't I say I was ambivalent? It was scary in parts, boring in parts, self-serving tripe in parts, total bullshit in parts, inspiring in parts. I have no idea if I can recommend it or not, or who I could recommend it too. People interested in feminist history, certainly, for Millett is an important figure in that arena. And I can heartily NOT recommend it for particularly fragile Bipolar people, because it is so triggery, I barely got through it myself without a few close calls on panic attacks.
I have no idea what more to say except: I wonder what happened to Jim?
Well, didn't I say I was ambivalent? It was scary in parts, boring in parts, self-serving tripe in parts, total bullshit in parts, inspiring in parts. I have no idea if I can recommend it or not, or who I could recommend it too. People interested in feminist history, certainly, for Millett is an important figure in that arena. And I can heartily NOT recommend it for particularly fragile Bipolar people, because it is so triggery, I barely got through it myself without a few close calls on panic attacks.
I have no idea what more to say except: I wonder what happened to Jim?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 10, 2019
Just looove the bit with the self-important young (female) doctor, trying to (illegally) commit Millett. And the seen-it-all New York cop who knows she's acting in bad faith, absolutely and knowingly ultra vires, self-admiringly feeding her own ego, and PUTS THE BITCH DOWN.
And then the little toad starts whining about how hard-done-by she is, and no-one understands what a misunderstood saint and heroine she really is...
And then the little toad starts whining about how hard-done-by she is, and no-one understands what a misunderstood saint and heroine she really is...
May 28, 2009
This is my all-time favorite first-person account of mental illness. It is written by the feminist author Kate Millet and describes her experience with bipolar disorder. In the excerpts of her journal you can really see her struggle as she decides to go off her medication and becomes more symptomatic. It is the best written account I've seen of what it is like to have manic episodes.
May 14, 2020
No ha sido fácil pero ha sido disfrutado. Cuesta de leer a ratos por la falta de referencias temporales (sobre todo al principio) pero plantea dilemas (anti)psiquiátricos cool como los límites de la locura y el comportamiento humano, la medicalización de las personas que desencajan en las normas sociales y la patologización social de la enfermedad mental. Y más, que me he señalado muchas páginas sobre las que volver.
En definitiva, Kate se destripa a sí misma en uno de los momentos más malos de su vida y tu asistes narrativamente a cómo estrella y se estrella su vida a cámara lenta mientras elabora un discursillo punkarra y antisistema y derrotero y cargado de feelings
En definitiva, Kate se destripa a sí misma en uno de los momentos más malos de su vida y tu asistes narrativamente a cómo estrella y se estrella su vida a cámara lenta mientras elabora un discursillo punkarra y antisistema y derrotero y cargado de feelings
April 13, 2022
Me parece complicado hablar de este libro porque estoy de acuerdo con muchas cosas, me genera dudas otras y percibo que hay unas cuantas que no entiendo. Tambien agradezco leerlo en este momento y darme cuenta de todo lo que no entendería de él sin haber escuchado algunas cosas de las personas que me rodean. Como lector me resulta abrumador y muy potente, muy duro y con un mensaje que debería oirse mucho más. Como persona a la que le gusta escribir solo puedo sentir admiración por alguien que es capaz de expresar de formas tan bonitas situaciones muy duras.
March 9, 2019
“Estés loca o no, seas culpable o inocente, maníaca o cuerda, te han tenido encerrada por locura y eso no se borra. Flota en el aire a los ojos de todos; está presente en la conversación que no oyes y en los tonos que sí oyes. Y la vergüenza no desaparece”.
Este libro ha sido toda una revelación. Kate se desnuda por completo, deja ver la vergüenza, la humillación, el terror, el dolor, la tristeza, la ira: todo para que podamos comprender lo que es ser una mujer loca, o por lo menos una mujer acusada de estar loca. ¿Qué es la locura? ¿Quién ha logrado que todos le tengan miedo, que permitan por ese mismo miedo traiciones, encierros, tratamientos brutales con efectos secundarios que te acompañan toda la vida? Escribir algo como esto me parece un auténtico regalo por parte de la autora, porque se nota la dificultad de contarlo en cada página. Pero lo hace: por ella, pero sobre todo por todas las demás, las que no tienen la suerte de escapar.
Este libro ha sido toda una revelación. Kate se desnuda por completo, deja ver la vergüenza, la humillación, el terror, el dolor, la tristeza, la ira: todo para que podamos comprender lo que es ser una mujer loca, o por lo menos una mujer acusada de estar loca. ¿Qué es la locura? ¿Quién ha logrado que todos le tengan miedo, que permitan por ese mismo miedo traiciones, encierros, tratamientos brutales con efectos secundarios que te acompañan toda la vida? Escribir algo como esto me parece un auténtico regalo por parte de la autora, porque se nota la dificultad de contarlo en cada página. Pero lo hace: por ella, pero sobre todo por todas las demás, las que no tienen la suerte de escapar.
December 26, 2020
Solo Kate Millet es capaz de darse sentido narrativo a los pensamientos erráticos de cualquier mente; a las contradicciones e incongruencias de la reflexión humana, al amor y la desconfianza que podemos sentir a la vez por algunas personas.
“Viaje al manicomio “ es un libro tan angustiante como necesario; ¿en qué basamos los parámetros de lo que es la locura? ¿es solo una etiqueta para emociones que todos sentimos en algún momento de nuestras vidas? ¿Es la medicación psiquiátrica eficaz? Millet nos lleva de la mano a través de su viaje a la “locura”, a través de su depresión y de su pérdida de confianza en si misma a la vez que nos obliga a pensar en nuestra propia acepción de lo que es la locura.
“Viaje al manicomio “ es un libro tan angustiante como necesario; ¿en qué basamos los parámetros de lo que es la locura? ¿es solo una etiqueta para emociones que todos sentimos en algún momento de nuestras vidas? ¿Es la medicación psiquiátrica eficaz? Millet nos lleva de la mano a través de su viaje a la “locura”, a través de su depresión y de su pérdida de confianza en si misma a la vez que nos obliga a pensar en nuestra propia acepción de lo que es la locura.
November 4, 2021
Me costó mucho leer este libro. Entre la sensación de estar dentro de la locura de Kate y algunas partes donde la traducción no tenía mucho sentido me fué difícil de terminar. Pero no me arrepiento, ni siquiera sé si debería darle calificación a la crónica de una persona que nos cuenta con tanto detalle su sufrimiento durante 13 años siendo medicada con litio, institucionalizada a la fuerza y en general maltratada por padecer una transtorno mental. Es un libro muy político y creo que sirve muchísimo para empezar a cuestionarnos el control del sistema sobre nuestra salud mental.
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December 17, 2020Lo he abandonado al 50% aproximadamente porque se me estaba haciendo muy pesado. Quizá haya sido mi momento lector, porque reconozco que gran parte del libro me ha gustado. Simplemente, se me ha hecho demasiado largo.
February 23, 2022
Qué tía Kate Millett... He llorado mucho con este libro, me he retorcido y he tenido pesadillas... pero también me ha devuelto una visión que me hacía falta, una llamada a la perseverancia y la lucha que ahora no soy capaz de contestar, pero que me ha aliviado mucho recibir.
July 23, 2012
Overwhelmingly honest, at times a tedious read, but good contribution, adding awareness, to an important topic. Found this book at a thrift store; it looked interesting and was.
November 21, 2020
Magnífico.
January 26, 2025
Fantástico. De los favoritos de mi estanteria. Los que te acompañan aunque te mudes tres veces. La autobiografía más lúcida jamás escrita desde el interior del sistema de disciplinamiento mental y de género..
September 8, 2012
Millet writes a brave and honest depiction of her struggle with bipolar disorder, and her decision to stop taking the lithium she has been prescribed for years.
What follows is a description of euphoric mania at her women's artist colony in Upstate New York, in New York City and finally in Ireland, where she is forcibly sent to a horrific mental "hospital." If not for her contacts with influential people, she might still be there. This memoir is set in 1979-80, but one wonders how much things have changed.
Throughout the course of this book, Millet is misunderstood and bullied by those she is closest to, such as her family. However, Millet also seems to lack awareness on how her behavior impacts on others. I am struck by how unloving and disrespectful she is to her husband, and her sorrow (and shock) at his desire for a divorce.This is what I mean by the book's honesty, you can't support Millet on everything, yet the author's integrity is in her candid depiction of events.
What follows in Millet's return to America, is her descent into severe depression, and her eventual, painful recovery. Millet challenges the mental health profession with her controversial views on what exactly constitutes "mental illness." This is not an easy book to read, but it is a powerful one.
What follows is a description of euphoric mania at her women's artist colony in Upstate New York, in New York City and finally in Ireland, where she is forcibly sent to a horrific mental "hospital." If not for her contacts with influential people, she might still be there. This memoir is set in 1979-80, but one wonders how much things have changed.
Throughout the course of this book, Millet is misunderstood and bullied by those she is closest to, such as her family. However, Millet also seems to lack awareness on how her behavior impacts on others. I am struck by how unloving and disrespectful she is to her husband, and her sorrow (and shock) at his desire for a divorce.This is what I mean by the book's honesty, you can't support Millet on everything, yet the author's integrity is in her candid depiction of events.
What follows in Millet's return to America, is her descent into severe depression, and her eventual, painful recovery. Millet challenges the mental health profession with her controversial views on what exactly constitutes "mental illness." This is not an easy book to read, but it is a powerful one.
March 6, 2019
Tras una de las experiencias más duras en su vida, Kate Millett decide dejar el litio. Es entonces cuando su círculo de seres queridos (su pareja Sophie, las chicas de Women's Art Colony Farm) cambia y juzga, y opina sobre una decisión que debería ser personal pero se convierte en pública. Y Millett sufre los prejuicios y las inseguridades propias asignadas a las personas con trastornos clínicos.
Es interesante ver cómo cambia su entorno pero, sobre todo, cómo la autora lo describe. Es una narración cargada de emociones que llevan frase por frase al interior de la biporalidad, la desesperación, el derrumbe y levantamiento, el caos y el paraíso en una misma vida.
Quizás pueda complicar a muchas personas su lectura al no tratarse de una narrativa conexa y ordenada. Millett une escenas y etapas de su vida caóticamente y sin una línea narratológica que las una salvo por lo sentimental. Los continuos saltos temporales que pueden crear confusión tienen sentido si florece la catarsis con la lectora. Es decir: la autora sigue una trama emocional que une escenas con otras de distintas etapas de su vida en las que se sintió del mismo modo (euforia, desesperación de huida, intentos de suicidio), lo cual nos hace comprender aún más su estado tras no tomar litio.
Toda una maravilla de lectura, aunque puede llegar a cansar al ser constantes descripciones.
Es interesante ver cómo cambia su entorno pero, sobre todo, cómo la autora lo describe. Es una narración cargada de emociones que llevan frase por frase al interior de la biporalidad, la desesperación, el derrumbe y levantamiento, el caos y el paraíso en una misma vida.
Quizás pueda complicar a muchas personas su lectura al no tratarse de una narrativa conexa y ordenada. Millett une escenas y etapas de su vida caóticamente y sin una línea narratológica que las una salvo por lo sentimental. Los continuos saltos temporales que pueden crear confusión tienen sentido si florece la catarsis con la lectora. Es decir: la autora sigue una trama emocional que une escenas con otras de distintas etapas de su vida en las que se sintió del mismo modo (euforia, desesperación de huida, intentos de suicidio), lo cual nos hace comprender aún más su estado tras no tomar litio.
Toda una maravilla de lectura, aunque puede llegar a cansar al ser constantes descripciones.
March 8, 2022
Kate Millet nos cuenta su historia con la locura, con el hecho de haber sido internada más de una vez. Fue diagnosticada con maniaco-depresión, tuvo que tomar litio por muchos años (sufrir los efectos secundarios) y lo que más me impactó, fue que vivió en carne propia la privación de sus derechos cuando ella se dedicaba a luchar por los derechos de las minorías.
El relato se divide en 3 partes y debo confesar que la segunda me pareció muy pesada, es cuando Kate estaba maniaca y realmente se lee y se percibe en esa euforia y confusión.
Me quedan muchas preguntas después de esta lectura. ¿Qué es la locura? ¿Por qué ese trato a los enfermos mentales? ¿Por qué la privación de derechos fundamentales? ¿Por qué vemos con malos ojos estas enfermedades?
Hay una película brasilera que se llama “Nice: el corazón de la locura”, creo que es un buen complemento a esta lectura.
El relato se divide en 3 partes y debo confesar que la segunda me pareció muy pesada, es cuando Kate estaba maniaca y realmente se lee y se percibe en esa euforia y confusión.
Me quedan muchas preguntas después de esta lectura. ¿Qué es la locura? ¿Por qué ese trato a los enfermos mentales? ¿Por qué la privación de derechos fundamentales? ¿Por qué vemos con malos ojos estas enfermedades?
Hay una película brasilera que se llama “Nice: el corazón de la locura”, creo que es un buen complemento a esta lectura.
March 21, 2018
Everyone might not find this a 5-star read, but I appreciated so much the immediacy of Kate Millett's writing, as if she were in the middle of a manic or depressive episode when she was writing. It really helped me understand what might be going on when a person is manic or seriously depressed. It also challenged my thinking on incarceration and the meaning of being a danger to one's self. Public/medical policy in these areas may not have changed much between the 80s and now.
January 10, 2023
Hermoso. Imprescindible. Lectura necesaria para cualquiera que milite por los derechos humanos. En especial para quienes trabajamos con y por la salud mental. Literariamente hermoso, como todo lo escrito por esta tremenda autora. Termino agradecida enormemente con ella por haber compartido su experiencia para transformarla en motor de lucha.
March 8, 2020
No creo que haya un libro igual, tan personal que es irrepetible. Imprescindible para las que nos consideramos "sanas" para saber lo que se siente cuando, por los motivos que sea, pasa a ser calificada como "loca",
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