PublishedAllen & Unwin, January 2018 |
ISBN9781760632366 |
FormatSoftcover, 288 pages |
Dimensions19.8cm × 12.8cm |
Psychiatrist Stephen Seager 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 nation's largest forensic mental hospitals, dedicated to treating the criminally insane.
Unit C, where Seager was assigned, was reserved for the 'bad actors', the mass murderers, serial killers and the real-life Hannibal Lecters 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, where lone therapists lead sharing circles with psychopaths, where homemade weapons and contraband circulate freely and where patients and physicians often measure their lives according to how fast they can run.
Behind the Gates of Gomorrah affords an eye-opening look inside a facility to which few people have ever had access. Honest, reflective and at times darkly funny, Seager's gripping account of his experiences at Napa State hospital give us an extraordinary insight into a unique and terrifying world, inhabited by figures from our nightmares.
Bill is one of the founders of Boffins and has been involved in selecting the books we stock since our beginning in 1989. His favourite reading is history, with psychology, current affairs, and business books coming close behind. His hobbies are reading, food, reading, drinking, reading, and sleeping.
Napa State Hospital in California, known locally as “Gomorrah”, is one of the largest forensic mental hospitals in the U.S., dedicated to treating the criminally insane. Stephen Seager, a psychiatrist, was no stranger to locked wards when he accepted a job there. Unit C, where he was assigned, was reserved for the 'bad actors', the mass murderers, serial killers and the real-life Hannibal Lecters of the world. In his account, it’s a place of terrible violence where both physicians and patients measure there lives by how fast they can run. Seager's gripping account of his experiences at Napa State hospital give us an extraordinary insight into a unique and terrifying world, inhabited by figures from our nightmares.
