Reality Police the Experience of Insanity in America

_Reality Police: The Experience of Insanity in America_, published in 1975 by author Anthony Brandt is an interesting study of the concept of insanity and the experience of the insane in the United States. Though dated this book offers an important study of the experience of insanity, questioning notions of reality, and discussing in detail the situation for those deemed "mentally ill" and the nature of mental hospitals and the rise of what is known as the therapeutic state. The author in particular focuses on several of the notorious abuses of the mental health system, noting the often authoritarian and hierarchical role of the system and the relationship between psychiatrists and the state, and offers several alternatives as a means to reform the system. While Brandt maintains that his book is not meant to be anti-psychiatry, he nonetheless exposes some of the more glaring inconsistencies in the notion of mental illness and the abuses of power by the psychiatrist. Brandt, who had himself committed as part of an experiment to write this book, often takes a cynical attitude towards the entire mental health system, regarding it as largely de-humanizing and notes some of the barbarities inflicted on people judged to be mentally ill by this system. Brandt also argues that psychiatrists have increasingly gained in power and are frequently capable of infringing upon the liberties of ordinary citizens for various obscure reasons which may have little to do with actual mental health, the well-being of these people or others, or even possible dangerousness to society. Brandt questions notions of mental illness and explains how frequently one judged as "crazy" is judged so by their peers, their family and society, before being judged so by mental health professionals. Brandt also shows the bureaucratic structure of mental hospitals, focusing particularly on the state mental hospital and emphasizing its de-humanizing tendencies, and the harmfulness of institutionalization. As such, this book offers some important thinking on the nature of mental illness and insanity as well as how it is dealt with by society at large (which serves as the "reality police", enforcing a collective notion of reality on the public at large). This book begins with an "Introduction" in which Brandt explains the concept of insanity focusing on the case of a certain individual and explaining how certain behaviors are judged inappropriate by society at large and result in individuals being considered insane. Following this appears the first chapter entitled "Reality Police" which explains how reality is arrived through collective consensus and how reality is enforced by society. In particular, the mental health establishment serves as the means whereby society at large enforces its version of reality. Brandt explains the nature of "reality testing" as practiced by mental health professionals to judge the nature of a person's mental status and then explains how consensus