Madness: The Search for Sanity in an Asylum, and the Legacy of Race in Mental Health by Antonia Hylton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
4.5 stars Madness is the story of Crownsville Hospital which was a hospital for the Negro insane in Maryland and built on the backs of the very people it was charged to serve. It began with 12 patients in 1911 who built the hospital in forced labor and eventually swelled to thousands of patients until its abrupt closure in 2004.
The author did meticulous research and discussed the history of the hospital as well as a description of the setting and historical realities from which this hospital was born. At times, this was simultaneously heartbreaking and infuriating. There were times as she was recounting stories of lynchings and brutal treatment of African American citizens where I had to take a break from the story and truly think about some of what I was learning.
The author recounts stories from her own family and discusses the ways that mental illness defined her reality. I found those anecdotes very moving but I sometimes had trouble placing them into the context of the narrative she was telling about the hospital.
Despite its brutal racist history, the hospital evolved to be doing good work and it was once again a racist ideology that closed it abruptly and has left it to decay – as if its history and its patients were unimportant.
After I finished listening to this I had to sit with my feelings for a bit before writing down my thoughts. This is a deeply moving and haunting book. I also found myself wanting to drive out to Crownsville and see it for myself. I watched “Crownsville Hospital – From Lunacy to Legacy” to learn more about this tragic segment of Maryland’s history. Watching that helped bring even further color to this book since many of the people the author references were also included in the documentary.
Overall, though Madness dragged in parts, it was a well-researched and well written deep dive into the history of racism and weaponized mental illness in Maryland. It is not a light read but one which will leave a lasting impact on the reader. I appreciate all the work the author put in to consolidate this history for the reader.
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