The Silence They Wrote for Me
eBook - ePub

The Silence They Wrote for Me

A Black Disabled Woman’s Fight Against Institutional Erasure

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Silence They Wrote for Me

A Black Disabled Woman’s Fight Against Institutional Erasure

About this book

What happens when a place meant to heal instead deepens the wounds?

The Silence They Wrote for Me is a powerful memoir of being Black, disabled, and institutionalised in the UK, tracing the author's harrowing journey through psychiatric wards where care is often replaced by confinement, control, and erasure.

With piercing honesty, the book reveals how racism, ableism, and misogyny intertwine in mental health systems—while also showing the impact on racialised, under-resourced staff caught within cycles of harm. Through lived memory, recorded conversations, and letters, the narrative captures not only the trauma of institutionalisation but also the silence, stigma, and obstacles faced upon returning to everyday life.

More than a memoir, this is a demand for justice and a vision of care rooted in humanity and dignity. Ideal for courses in Disability Studies, Sociology, Social Work, Race and Ethnicity Studies, and for practitioners and activists committed to rethinking mental health systems.

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Yes, you can access The Silence They Wrote for Me by Abigal Muchecheti, Dr Damian Mellifont PhD in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Social Science Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half-Title Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Dedication
  6. Abstract
  7. Table of Contents
  8. Content warning
  9. Learning objectives
  10. Introduction
  11. 1 The body they feared Containment, diagnosis, and writing from the ward
  12. 2 Locked spaces, locked voice Language, muteness, and institutional control
  13. 3 Violence in uniforms Coercion by staff, security, and police in psychiatric institutions
  14. 4 The men in the room Patriarchy, power, and gendered violence in psychiatric care
  15. 5 Estranged minds: Migration, madness, and institutional abandonment
  16. 6 Epistemic violence Silencing, pathologising, and denial of knowledge
  17. 7 Levelled Institutional flattening of memory, identity, and agency
  18. 8 Exiting but not free Surveillance, stigma, and systemic abandonment post-discharge
  19. 9 What I could not say in the ward Memory, love, rage, and the unspoken truths: Holding silence, naming refusal
  20. 10 Building otherwise: CARE: A decolonial framework for abolitionist mental health
  21. Epilogue: When silence becomes a weapon, so does the word Closing the door on reform, opening the path to insurgent healing
  22. Index