Doctor Elizabeth Ford is a psychiatrist who has worked on and overseen the prison hospital psychiatric wards at Bellevue Hospital in New York since 2000. In this memoir, Dr. Ford describes the conditions, staff and patients in these wards as well as her own personal journey in working with them. Much of what she describes is frustrating and tragic: the lack of space and consistent treatment for those in need, seeing the same prisoners cycle back into her wards over and over, stories of individual […]
A sad little book that never got asked to the dance
What a peculiar little book. I happened to be browsing through the stacks at the local public library, and came across it. The title caught my eye, and then I saw it was authored by a psychiatrist with whose work I am familiar in the area of catatonia. I did not expect to find a book on this topic written by a well-known professor of psychiatry tucked away amongst the more popular titles. My confusion only grew when I actually read the book today, as […]