Overview

To many, insanity pleas are an excuse to get away with murder. But what about the real people who are convicted under such circumstances? What does criminally insane truly mean? And what are the sources of violence in our society, our cultural biases, and the gaps in psychiatry and law that contribute? In this compelling book, Walter A. Borden, M.D., an experienced forensic psychiatrist, shares his experience in the field through the stories of four cases that haunt him. Each case features a woman-a mother-who had suffered agonizing abuse masked by our society's pervasive indifference to mental suffering. Those wounds were sealed over, but the resulting damage later erupted in mental illness and the tragic death of their own child. This book provides an essential look into the impact of early child abuse and cultural factors that contribute to the stigma of mental illness. The price we pay for shutting our eyes is violence and tragic consequences. In humanizing the women whom many would call monsters, Borden shines light on a subject rarely spoken about and provides a unique and essential understand of the criminally insane.

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9781530625758

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A graduate of Amherst College and NYU-School of Medicine, Walter A. Borden, M.D. trained in psychiatry at the University of Rochester, Strong Memorial Hospital. He has been a general and forensic psychiatrist since 1965. Beyond having an active practice, he was a community psychiatry consultant. He also supervised child psychiatry residents in Juvenile Court, taught a psychiatry and law course at the University of Connecticut Law School, and taught medical students at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Additionally, he ran training programs for probation officers at the state and federal levels. He currently lives in Bloomfield, Connecticut. This book is a critique of current psychiatry and our justice system. The author sheds light on the consequences of child abuse, cultural bias, stigma of mental illness, oppression of women, and our society's enabling of cruelty and brutality.

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