Interesting read...

I think that Metzl's narrative, Protest Psychosis, was a more interesting read than the previous book...however I do not know if it is simply due to my own personal interests in terms of how history is written.

The eloquent prose of the case studies provides an insight into the institution but, more importantly, insight into the lives of a few patients. Metzl uses patient files, as well as documented interviews between patient/doctor to give the narrative a more personal theme. Writing patients back into the history of medicine is often something, until recently, which history has overlooked. However, providing a more personal touch, a reader is allowed to make a different judgment of a particular situation and how it changes over time. For example the first case deals with a woman placed in the institution for (basically) breaking down in a public place due to overwhelming stress in her life. However, without the creation of story within Metzl's narrative, we might not much of a story, or at least not one as compelling.

I enjoyed reading about schizophrenia's changing perspectives - the general public, those institutionalized, and those in power-positions within and without the institutions. Moreover, I feel like Protest Psychosis provides an interesting example of how a social history of medicine can be written.