We all have seen movies and sometimes read of mentally incapable (a more polite way of saying insane) people. The way they behave sometimes amuses us and sometimes frightens us till our core.
The author, who's a psychiatrist, was no stranger to locked psych wards when he accepted a job at California's Napa State Hospital, known locally as 'Gomorrah', but nothing could have prepared him for what he encountered when he stepped through its gates.
Napa State is one of the US largest forensic mental hospitals, dedicated to treating the criminally insane. Unit C, where the author was assigned, was reserved for the 'bad actors', the mass murderers, serial killers and the real-life Hannibal Lecter's of the world.
Against a backdrop of surreal beauty - a campus-like setting where peacocks strolled the well-kept lawns - is a place of remarkable violence.
Lone therapists lead sharing circles with psychopaths, homemade weapons and contraband circulate freely and patients and physicians often measure their lives according to how fast they can run.
At first, i was merely touched by how psychiatrists never judge patients no matter what they did. The book slowly became horrifying as patients kept hidden shanks (everyday items sharpened into weapons like eyeglass stems) and faeces were flung at medical staff.
It also happened to show the situation of security on standby to keep trouble at bay. This book affords an eye-opening look inside a facility to which few people have ever had access.
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