Author Norah Vincent describes the work she does as "immersion journalism.” For her first book, Self-Made Man (© 2006, Viking), Vincent explored sex role stereotypes and gender issues by actually disguising herself as a man and infiltrating such diverse bastions of manhood as strip clubs and monasteries. In the author’s latest book, Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin, Vincent explores depression and mental health treatment by once again "immersing” herself in her subject matter. Over the course of a year, the author, who has struggled with depression, checks herself into three very different psychiatric facilities—an urban public hospital, a small, private clinic in the Midwest, and a progressive, alternative clinic—and writes about her experiences with the staff and patients.While Vincent can sometimes come off as angry and self-righteous, Voluntary Madness is a valuable read in that the author, a non-mental health professional, exposes some glaring deficits in the ways we treat the mentally ill. She is especially critical of the tendency to pathologize and medicate individuals rather than explore their unique strengths and support systems (or lack thereof).

As I read the book, I couldn’t help but think, "Wow, Norah Vincent is promoting a strength-based, developmental Counseling philosophy, and she doesn’t even know it!” While the book has its flaws, I still recommend Voluntary Madness to counselors and mental health professionals of all stripes. In a manner both challenging and entertaining, Norah Vincent manages to shake our complacency and challenge the "business as usual” mindset regarding the ways in which public and private institutions treat, and mistreat, mentally ill individuals.