Committed to the Sane Asylum

Artist and writer Susan Schellenberg began her career as a public nurse. In 1980, she committed to healing from a 1969 psychosis and ten-year course of anti-psychotic drugs and to keeping a visual-art and written record of her dreams and inner journey as her mind healed. Susan's Shedding Skins, dream art with text, is on permanent exhibit in the main lobby at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. Psychologist Rosemary Barnes has worked at Toronto General and Women's College Hospitals and been affiliated with the University of Toronto, York University, and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. She has published on suicide, HIV conditions, and residential schools, and has provided expert opinion in legal cases relating to lesbian/gay issues and trauma. She is currently in independent practice.

``What sets this book apart is the insight it provides into patience and clinician experiences in the parallel and often overlapping narratives. Schellenberg and Barnes have never had a patient-clinican relationship, but their identities as each inform their friendship, and their experiences individually and together fuel each other's transformation. This is a story of people exploring their past in a quest to understand who they are and where they are headed.... War is a metaphor for madness in this book--the problematic approach to recovery depicted as an epic battle against unwanted parts of oneself. Schellenberg and Barnes' stories advocate exploring and embracing ourselves wholly. Schellenberg shares pages from her files as a psychiatric patient, which, she says, allows the medical professionals she interracted with to tell their side of the story. Reading the charts is surreal. It is gut-wrenching to see the impersonal nature of the notes, and to realize the profound impact that these superficial, subjective observations had on Schellenberg's life.... The book is compellingly frank and accessible. The stories are intensely personal. Schellenberg and Barnes share with such honesty that it is easy to become immersed. These are stories about truth--the courage to look for it and the healing that comes from embracing it.'' -- Jane Shulman -- Canadian Women's Health Network, April 2014, 201406

• Committed to the Sane Asylum by Susan Schellenbert and Rosemary BarnesAcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter 1: Normal BeginningsChapter 2: ProtestsChapter 3: Towards HealingChapter 4: Strengthening through Structure, Healing through ArtChapter 5: Conversations on Mental Health CarChapter 6: Conversations on Story, Art, and HealingChapter 7: War and PeaceChapter 8: An Eye to DelightAppendix 1: Susan Schellenberg's Art and TextAppendix 2: Clinical Records and Glossary