The Lives They Left Behind
Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic
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Narrated by:
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Alex Paul
About this listen
More than four hundred abandoned suitcases filled with patients’ belongings were found when Willard Psychiatric Center closed in 1995 after 125 years of operation. They are skillfully examined here and compared to the written record to create a moving—and devastating—group portrait of twentieth-century American psychiatric care.
©2008 Darby Penney and Peter Stastny (P)2014 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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The Lives They Left Behind is a deeply moving testament to the human side of mental illness, and of the narrow margin which so often separates the sane from the mad. It is a remarkable portrait, too, of the life of a psychiatric asylum--the sort of community in which, for better and for worse, hundreds of thousands of people lived out their lives. Darby Penney and Peter Stastny's careful historical (almost archaeological) and biographical reconstructions give us unique insight into these lives which would otherwise be lost and, indeed, unimaginable to the rest of us.” (Oliver Sacks, M.D., Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, Columbia University Artist, and author of Musicophilia)
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Due to horrible physical deformities, he spent much of his life as a fairground freak. He was hounded, persecuted, and starving, until his fortune changed and he was rescued, housed, and fed by the distinguished surgeon, Frederick Treves. The subject of several books, a Broadway hit, and a film, Joseph Merrick has become part of popular mythology. Here, in this fully revised edition containing much fresh information, are the true and un-romanticized facts of his life.
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Amazing man!
- By Carolyn on 02-05-15
By: Michael Howell, and others
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A Bittersweet Season
- Caring for Our Aging Parents - And Ourselves
- By: Jane Gross
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In telling the intimate story of caring for her aged and ailing mother, Jane Gross offers indispensable, and often surprising, advice for the rapidly increasing number of adult children responsible for aging parents. Gross deftly weaves the specifics of her personal experience with a comprehensive resource for effectively managing the lives of one's own parents while keeping sanity and strength intact.
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Exceptional, thought-provoking, liberating!
- By Anne on 08-10-11
By: Jane Gross
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Inside Scientology
- The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion
- By: Janet Reitman
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Scientology, created in 1954 by a prolific sci-fi writer named L. Ron Hubbard, claims to be the world's fastest-growing religion, with millions of members around the world and huge financial holdings. Its celebrity believers keep its profile high, and its teams of "volunteer ministers" offer aid at disaster sites such as Haiti and the World Trade Center. But Scientology is also a notably closed faith, harassing journalists and others through litigation and intimidation, even infiltrating the highest levels of government to further its goals.
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My cup of tea.
- By MWMcCabe on 08-09-11
By: Janet Reitman
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Damnation Island
- Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York
- By: Stacy Horn
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Today it is known as Roosevelt Island. In 1828, when New York City purchased this narrow, two-mile-long island in the East River, it was called Blackwell's Island. There, over the next hundred years, the city would build a lunatic asylum, prison, hospital, workhouse, and almshouse. Stacy Horn has crafted a compelling and chilling narrative told through the stories of the poor souls sent to Blackwell's, as well as the period's city officials, reformers, and journalists (including the famous Nellie Bly). Damnation Island re-creates what daily life was like on the island....
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Fascinating!
- By tamborine on 08-06-18
By: Stacy Horn
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The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
- A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
- By: Anne Fadiman
- Narrated by: Pamela Xiong
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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When three-month-old Lia Lee arrived at the county hospital emergency room in Merced, California, a chain of events was set in motion from which neither she nor her parents nor her doctors would ever recover. Lia's parents, Foua and Nao Kao, were part of a large Hmong community in Merced, refugees from the CIA-run "Quiet War" in Laos.
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Good audiobook but narrator struggles with basic pronunciation
- By Kate on 06-04-15
By: Anne Fadiman
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Teeth
- The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America
- By: Mary Otto
- Narrated by: Suehyla El'Attar
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Teeth takes listeners on a disturbing journey into America's silent epidemic of oral disease, exposing the hidden connections between tooth decay and stunted job prospects, low educational achievement, social mobility, and the troubling state of our public health.
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Content everyone should know; dismal narration
- By Elaine on 08-04-17
By: Mary Otto
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Bellevue
- Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital
- By: David Oshinsky
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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David Oshinsky, whose last book, Polio: An American Story, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, chronicles the history of America's oldest hospital and in so doing also charts the rise of New York to the nation's preeminent city, the path of American medicine from butchery and quackery to a professional and scientific endeavor, and the growth of a civic institution.
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Fascinating
- By Jean on 12-14-16
By: David Oshinsky
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Rush
- Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father
- By: Stephen Fried
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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By the time he was 30, Dr. Benjamin Rush had signed the Declaration of Independence, edited Common Sense, toured Europe as Benjamin Franklin’s protégé, and become John Adams’s confidant, and was soon to be appointed Washington’s surgeon general. And as with the greatest Revolutionary minds, Rush was only just beginning his role in 1776 in the American experiment.
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The narration problem can be corrected
- By Sandra L. on 09-27-18
By: Stephen Fried
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Asleep
- The Forgotten Epidemic That Became Medicine’s Greatest Mystery
- By: Molly Caldwell Crosby
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1918, a world war raged, and a lethal strain of influenza circled the globe. In the midst of all this death, a bizarre disease appeared in Europe. Eventually known as encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness, it spread worldwide, leaving millions dead or locked in institutions. Then, in 1927, it disappeared as suddenly as it had arrived. Asleep, set in 1920s and '30s New York, follows a group of neurologists through hospitals and asylums as they try to solve this epidemic and treat its victims - who learned the worst fate was not dying of it, but surviving it.
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Scary, and still unsolved, medical mystery
- By joyce on 12-14-14
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Truth Doesn't Have a Side
- My Alarming Discovery About the Danger of Contact Sports
- By: Dr. Bennet Omalu, Mark Tabb, Will Smith - foreword
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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One day in 2002 the 50-year old body of former Pittsburgh Steeler and hall of famer Mike Webster was laid on a cold table in front of pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu. Webster's body looked to Omalu like the body of a much older man, and the circumstances of his behavior prior to his death were clouded in mystery. But when Omalu cut into Webster's brain, it appeared to be normal. Something didn't add up.
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Truly Enlightening
- By Marie on 01-31-20
By: Dr. Bennet Omalu, and others
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Paper Love
- Searching for the Girl My Grandfather Left Behind
- By: Sarah Wildman
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Years after her grandfather's death, journalist Sarah Wildman stumbled upon a cache of his letters in a file labeled "Correspondence: Patients A-G". What she found inside weren't dry medical histories; instead what was written opened a path into the destroyed world that was her family's prewar Vienna. One woman's letters stood out: those from Valy-Valerie Scheftel, her grandfather's lover who remained behind when he fled Europe six months after the Nazis annexed Austria.
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Compelling and Personal Exploration
- By Murphee on 08-09-23
By: Sarah Wildman
What listeners say about The Lives They Left Behind
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Leahwo
- 07-10-24
Important story. Horrible narration!
This is a very interesting book, however the narration sounds like a computerized voice. Terrible. Ruins it for me.
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- Jennifer
- 10-02-14
excellent voice - like the Dragnet detective
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
Since I was truly curious about the subject of the history of mental health institutionsI found the listen to be time well spent. The authors were documenting many facts and, for most of the book,leaving the listener to sift through what they heard and draw their own conclusions. The narrator stayed even and true to the text. The detective style of narration interjected an ominous truth to the book. (sometimes the lists of what was found in a suitcase mayhave become tedious to listen to, but the point was well made, and with Mr. Paul's voice would send a shiver).
What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
Being non-fiction, this book was not a "story" per se. The facts were eerie. The points made by the writing of this book revealed the intense need for changes in the mental health care systems, and the fact that not enough changes have yet occurred remain.
What about Alex Paul’s performance did you like?
I liked Mr. Paul's narration. Serious, consistent.- not getting in the way of the text revealing what the authors were wanting to reveal.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Mary
- 11-14-15
Very very slow moving book
Would you try another book from Darby Penney and Peter Stastny and/or Alex Paul?
Probably not...
What other book might you compare The Lives They Left Behind to and why?
I found the book very slow moving and the narrators voice was very slow as well...I found I could not hold my concentration on what the narrator was saying.
Did Alex Paul do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?
The characters were definitely differentiated by each chapter.
Do you think The Lives They Left Behind needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
No i do not think this book needs a follow up at all...Not sure what it would say.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Joanna
- 11-23-21
awful reading voice
horrible narration this person's voice is just so unpleasantly low and vibrating that it makes listening unbearable even though book is great in itself
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- Teresa
- 11-04-18
Clinical analysis, but interesting
This was interesting, but had a lot statistics. I would have been much more interested if it would’ve elaborated more on the contents of the trunks. Nevertheless, we all need to take a better look at our own community institution’s living conditions and treatment of patients. Poor treatment is still a problem in mental hospitals and nursing homes.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 07-27-20
This is a very informative account of mental health treatment.
This is a very well written book about the state of mental health in the US over the last 100 years. It is frightening. I have worked in residential treatment facilities for children and adolescents and have witnessed the revolving door of patients moving from one facility to another with little hope of ever leaving the system.
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- redheadmomx2
- 11-24-21
Moving
Good and interesting read. Well worth it.!!!!! Very moving and sad but not a well told story
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- Samantha
- 02-16-21
Great idea, TERRIBLE narrator
While the individual stories and idea of the book is extremely interesting, the narrator was so unbearable I couldn't bring myself to finish listening after multiple attempts.
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- B. Shaff
- 11-09-17
Not really the book I expected
I am currently doing some work at the site of the former Willard Asylum and during a Google search found this book. I expected a book of stories about the people and their lives here. About half or less of the book seems to be about the people. All the rest seemed like a social justice crusade against the past and current mental health system. The book could be titled "All the things they did wrong and still do" While many of the injustices of the past clearly weave into the personal stories it seemed like whole chapters drifted way of the implied subject of the book.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Listing Books
- 02-13-18
Truly sad and very interesting.
A great interest in preserving the life's of the forgotten. A sad reality of how we treated mentally ill and in many cases those imprisoned against there will. Very descriptive. Only negative at times was the long mundane description of some items found. Overall a wonderful exploration of the mental institutes of the past and the treatment that persons often innocent of any crime or mental problem went through.
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2 people found this helpful