I had this book in my virtual cart at Powells for months. Then, after finally buying and receiving it, it sat on my shelf for another couple months. It was well worth the wait! Hot damn Kate Millett, this may be the best book I've ever read about being crazy. Certain part of this book hit so close to home that I felt them in my soul. I will be rereading this book many times. ( )

Viaje al manicomio es la poderosa e impactante historia personal de la lucha de Kate Millett para mantener el control de su vida tras ser diagnosticada como maniaco-depresiva. Tras dos breves internamientos en centros psiquiátricos, la artista, escritora y activista feminista comienza a vivir aterrorizada por la posibilidad de ser recluida de nuevo. Finalmente, su peor pesadilla se convierte en realidad y es internada durante un viaje a Irlanda por decisión de sus familiares. En estas memorias, Millett evoca magistralmente la montaña rusa de sentimientos que supone el trastorno bipolar (euforia y desesperación; paranoia e impotencia; la angustia y la vergüenza de saberse incapaz) y construye un alegato a favor de los derechos civiles de los enfermos mentales en la sociedad y la familia.

Viaje al manicomio es la poderosa e impactante historia personal de la lucha de Kate Millett para mantener el control de su vida tras ser diagnosticada como maniaco-depresiva. Tras dos breves internamientos en centros psiquiátricos, la artista, escritora y activista feminista comienza a vivir aterrorizada por la posibilidad de ser recluida de nuevo. Finalmente, su peor pesadilla se convierte en realidad y es internada durante un viaje a Irlanda por decisión de sus familiares. En estas memorias, Millett evoca magistralmente la montaña rusa de sentimientos que supone el trastorno bipolar (euforia y desesperación; paranoia e impotencia; la angustia y la vergüenza de saberse incapaz) y construye un alegato a favor de los derechos civiles de los enfermos mentales en la sociedad y la familia. Millett, que falleció el 6 de septiembre de 2017 provocando una ola de reacciones en el mundo artístico y feminista («la revolucionaria sexual», según El País), publicó su tesis Política sexual en agosto de 1970, donde ofreció una amplia crítica de la sociedad patriarcal en la sociedad occidental y la literatura. En particular, ataca lo que ella visualiza como sexismo y heterosexismo en los novelistas D.H. Lawrence,
Henry Miller y Norman Mailer, contrastando sus puntos de vista discrepantes con el punto de vista del novelista y poeta Jean Genet.

sad, disturbing. not much seems to have changed. how could she forgive her lover who wanted to send her to hospital. if she told the truth as she saw it, she didn't see everything. she must have been very difficult to have so many people doing her dirt. she died in october this year on a holiday with her wife sophie. ( )

I'm glad that people like Kate Millett helped advocate for the civil rights of people with mental illness, although it's more than unfortunate that these days that has come to mean that instead of getting help in hospitals, people with severe mental illness go to prison instead.

Considering the state of "mental health care" at the time (locking people up and drugging them against their will) it's quite frankly a miracle that anybody could recover from mental illness, and Kate Millett certainly didn't seem to until she found a doctor who was actually helpful. I'm not surprised that she was an advocate against forced medicalization and hospitalization. That said, medicine and hospitals work for some people; I have never been firmly anti-psychiatry. It's too bad Kate Millett didn't have access to doctors today who would have helped her either with CBT/DBT therapies or possibly medication with side-effects that she could have lived with. Instead she was met with scorn, gaslighting and forced treatment.

This was an interesting book. Definitely more poetic and flowery than most memoirs. The only thing this book could have done without was the chapter on the horses's dick. If you didn't think that the author suffered from bipolar disorder, a ranting chapter about horse cock will certainly convince you. Thankfully you can skip pages in a book. Unfortunately it will be a while before the images have been erased from my mind. ( )