David's life and hard and (sometimes) good times -- Symptoms of what? Official symptoms and David's experiences -- Causes of schizophrenia : mind, body, or both together? -- Treating persons with mental illness : why such poor treatment? -- Living arrangements : recovery or maintenance? -- What would we do if we really cared?
Summary
"In telling the story of her son's thirty-year struggle with schizophrenia, Rosemary Ruether lays bare the inhumane treatment throughout history of people with mental illness. Despite countless reforms by "idealistic reformers" and an enlightened understanding that mental illness is a physical disease like any other, conditions for people who struggle with mental illness are little improved. Ruether asks why this is so and then goes on to imagine what we would do for people with mental illness "if we really cared.""--Jacket
