DEUTSCH, Albert; Karl A. Menninger (introduction)

The Shame of the States [Inscribed]

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1948. First Edition. Octavo (21cm); pale green paper-covered boards, with titling stamped in red on spine; 188pp; black-and-white photographic (halftone) illustrations on glossy paper throughout. Inscribed by author on front endpaper: "To my dear friends Louise and Norman Reider (and Pete) / Affectionately Albert Deutsch 12.22.48". Spine-tanned, with rubbing and scuffing of paper at spine ends and corners, blue ink spot to front upper board margin light foxing and soil to upper edge of textblock, and off-setting to front pastedown and endpaper (from laid-in newspaper clipping); Good.

Possibly the defining work of Deutsch’s lifelong crusade to make the unafflicted general population of the US recognize the fact that those suffering from mental illnesses are also just human beings, and are deserving of an equal amount of dignity, decency, and care:

"Lunacy, like the rain, falls upon the evil and the good; and although it must forever remain a fearful misfortune, yet there may be no more sin or shame in it than there is in an ague fit or a fever." [The Shame of The States; p.3-4]

The book opens by assessing the general public’s attitudes towards and feelings regarding the mentally ill; where these opinions and prejudices originate, and to an extent what can be done about them. The crux of Deutsch’s argument is that for the national situation to change for the better, society must alter its viewpoints and recognize that in his assessment 51.3 percent of patients admitted to hospital on an average day are mental patients, and that the mental health crisis is “America’s number one health problem.”

Later parts of the book highlight the conditions under which even the more fortunate mental health patients are treated, and gives sketches of health facilities, asylums, and sanitariums visited during the writing of the book. His ultimate feeling is that the manner in which the mentally ill are treated in contemporary America is indicative of a “contempt for human dignity.” An entire chapter is entitled “Euthanasia Through Neglect”, criticizing the manner in which the mentally ill are often just left to deteriorate with no effort made to provide meaningful treatment, as it was (and perhaps is) considered more important to keep them out of the way, a policy which Deutsch finds morally insupportable: “we are not like the Nazis. We do not kill off 'insane' people coldly as a matter of official state policy...We do it by neglect." [85155].

Price: $250.00

Go Back