Voluntary Madness

Voluntary Madness is a controversial work that unveils the state of mental healthcare in the United States from the inside out.

At the conclusion of her celebrated first book, Self-Made Man, in which she spent eighteen months disguised as a man, Norah Vincent found herself emotionally drained and severely depressed.

Determined but uncertain about maintaining her own equilibrium, she committed herself to three different facilities — a big-city hospital, a private clinic in the Midwest, and an upscale retreat in the South. Voluntary Madness is the chronicle of Vincent's journey through the world of the mentally ill as she struggles to find her own health and happiness.

Revelatory, deeply personal, and utterly relevant.