Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin - Softcover

Norah Vincent has always suffered from depression but at the end of a book project that required her to spend eighteen months disguised as a man she felt that she was a danger to herself and was committed to a 'loony bin'. As a result of this traumatic experience Norah came out resolved to go back undercover to report on a range of mental institutions - three difficult, pressurized and very different environments - and to experience first hand their effect on the body and mind.

Her journey starts in a huge inner city hospital where most patients are 'repeats', often poor and dispossessed. There Norah confronts the boredom and babbling of an underfunded facility: a place where medication is a process of containment: its purpose to make life easier for the rest of us, not the patients themselves. Cut to the calming green carpet of St Lukes: plenty of 'loonies' here too of course but Norah is taken aback when her doctor allows her to reduce her medication, have a room of her own and a regular jog in the park. Then to Mobius, and a Buddhist-inspired brand of healing, where Norah is forced to plunge deep into her emotional past, and swim through the psycho-babble to some unexpected conclusions.

In Voluntary Madness, Norah Vincent takes a fearless and unprecedented view of mental health care - from the inside out. She demonstrates the power of common sense and human connection: how much better a patient can feel when treated like a person and not a petri dish. In analysing the peculiar, sometimes damaging and occasionally transformative relationships between patients and their caregivers, her consummate, fearless and darkly funny reportage makes for riveting reading.

Celebrated 'immersion' journalist Norah Vincent goes undercover - this time in the mental health system. But when she gets sectioned she discovers that she's not just there to report, she's there to be cured

Praise for Self-Made Man: My Year Disguised as a Man

'Funny, compelling and human' Sarah Vine, The Times

'Intelligent, articulate and perceptive... one of the most sympathetic renderings of masculinity you're likely to read.' Lionel Shriver, Guardian

'An addictive, enthralling read' Viv Groskop, Observer

'This captivating account will forever change the way you see man - and perhaps yourself.' Marie Claire

'Beautifully written... a brave and fascinating book.' Christopher Hart, Sunday Times