Principal social themes: child abuse, suicide/depression

Lorimar. PG rating. Featuring: Sally Field, Joanne Woodward, Brad Davis, Martine Bartlett, Jane Hoffman, Charles Lane, Jessamine Milner, William Prince, Natasha Ryan, Tommy Crebbs, Penelope Allen, Camila Ashlend, Paul Tulley, Elizabeth Anne Beesley, Harold Pruitt. Written by Stewart Stern based on the book by Flora Rheta Schreiber. Cinematography by Mario Tosi. Edited by Michael S. McLean, Rita Roland, and Robert Pickarts. Music by Leonard Rosenman. Produced by Jacqueline Babbin. Directed by Daniel Petrie. Color. 198 minutes, original version; 132 minutes revised version.

Sybil is a meticulous adaptation of an amazing true-life case of a woman who had sixteen different personalities, the result of traumatic childhood abuse. The film starred Sally Field in the title role, and Joanne Woodward as her psychiatrist. Woodward previously won an Academy Award for portraying a victim of multiple personalities in The Three Faces of Eve (1957), another true story. Sybil won Emmy Awards for best screenplay, film score, leading actress (Field), and most outstanding special drama. Joanne Woodward and Natasha Ryan (Sybil as a child) were also cited for their outstanding work. Originally shown over two nights on NBC (November 14–15, 1976), the film was revised and edited for overseas theatrical release, syndicated broadcasts, and video release.

Synopsis

Sybil Dorsett is a strange young woman working as a substitute teacher in New York City. She becomes incoherent while having a cut on her arm treated at a hospital emergency room. The psychiatrist on duty, Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, examines her and finds her talking and behaving as if she were a nine-year-old child. She suddenly returns to normal, and when the doctor questions her, she admits to having had blackout spells most of her life. Sybil agrees to continue treatment. She asks her father, Williard Dorsett, for financial assistance when he visits New York with his new wife. Instead, he suggests that Sybil return to live at home.

A crisis develops when a stranger called Vicky telephones Dr. Wilbur in the middle of the night saying that Sybil is in a hotel room in Harlem contemplating suicide. The doctor finds her in a depressed state, again reverted to a childlike persona. Dr. Wilbur realizes that Sybil is suffering from multiple personality syndrome. At her next appointment, Sybil arrives in the character of Vicky, a confident and self-assured thirteen-year-old. Dr. Wilbur encounters other personalities through hypnosis: Vanessa, an accomplished pianist; Peggy, the

troubled nine-year-old; Marsha, depressed and suicidal; even an old woman who is a surrogate grandmother. Through treatment, the psychiatrist discovers that Sybil’s deceased mother, Hattie, was behind the fragmentation of her personality. When she was growing up in rural Wisconsin, Sybil suffered terrible abuse as a child from her mother, who treated her daughter normally in front of her father and others, but mistreated her continually when they were alone, pushing her downstairs, burning her hand on the stove, and locking her in a storage bin in the barn. Each of Sybil’s personalities has different memories of the abuse, except for Sybil herself.

Another crisis develops when Sybil starts dating Richard, a street musician. After cooking Christmas dinner for Richard and Matt, his young son, Sybil starts acting irrationally. Hearing her say the name “Dr. Wilbur,” Richard calls the doctor, who warns him about her condition and tells him that she may become suicidal in the persona of Marsha. Richard prevents Sybil from jumping off the roof. When Dr. Wilbur arrives, he overhears Sybil telling her that she is in love with Richard but would prefer not to see him again until she is cured. Shortly afterward, Richard moves away. As Dr. Wilbur makes progress in treating Sybil, she encounters resistance just before she plans to leave for Chicago for a medical lecture. Sybil claims that she is faking, that there are no other personalities. After her Chicago conference, Dr. Wilbur drives to Sybil’s hometown in Wisconsin. She searches through her old house and finds purple crayon markings in the storage bin in the barn, confirmation that Sybil’s original story under hypnosis was true. The psychiatrist consults with Dr. Quinoness, the local physician, who reveals a series of shocking events from Sybil’s medical records. He confesses his shame in having taken no action at the time.

Returning to New York, Dr. Wilbur convinces Sybil to confront her most frightening memories. She recalls how her mother gave her enemas, forcing her to hold the water while her mother played Dvorak’s New World Symphony on the piano. When the water leaked out, her mother would tie her up and poke at her genital area with knives and hooks. Screaming, Sybil spoke aloud of her rage about the abuse she suffered. By reliving this most painful event, Sybil accepts all of Peggy’s memories, and the personalities merge. After this breakthrough, Sybil, with Dr. Wilbur’s help, is able to join with all of her other “selves” and become a whole person again.

Critique

Sybil was one of the most compelling examinations of child abuse on film, demonstrating that recovery from such trauma is almost a lifelong process. The picture uncovers numerous issues for study. How could Sybil’s mother behave in such a monstrous fashion? She obviously knew her behavior was wrong because she concealed it from her husband and others. Her worse abuse of her daughter was mercurial, performed while she quoted old proverbs and nursery rhymes. Actress Jane Hoffman is brilliant as Frieda Dorsett, the mother, in one of the most terrifying performances of the 1970s. The only individual who could have intervened was Dr. Quinoness, since he had seen the proof of the child’s mistreatment. Charles Lane brings considerable depth to his portrayal of Quinoness, haunted by his memory of his inaction. Joanne Woodward as Dr. Wilbur, also shows considerable compassion by not rebuking Dr. Quinoness during this scene, seeing that his torment is genuine. In terms of prevention, this scene is key to the film, especially since Sybil’s father, Willard Dorsett, seems to have been blind to the abuse, observing little outside his strict religious platitudes. Still, as a parent, he should not be exonerated for his inattention. It is harder to blame Sybil’s grandmother, crippled in a wheelchair, for any responsibility. She was largely confined to the upper floor of the house and played lovingly with Sybil whenever the child visited her room. Yet actress Jessamine Milner portrays the grandmother as having some suspicions. When Hattie trips Sybil on the stairway, she calls out, “What was that?” She does not seem fully satisfied with Hattie’s reply that Sybil had another of her clumsy falls. Could Sybil have asked her grandmother for help? It appears that her mother frightened her into silence lest she be punished for lying. Her suicidal impulse, blaming herself for the treatment she receives from her mother, is another crucial aspect of the story. This is only swept away when Dr. Wilbur unleashes the adult Sybil’s outrage against her dead mother. One interesting point, in 1998, psychologist Robert Rieber wrote a report casting doubt on Dr. Wilbur’s multiple personality analysis, based on a taped discussion between the doctor and the book’s author, Flora Schreiber. Since both Wilbur and Schreiber are both deceased, they could not respond to the criticism. Other psychiatrists found Rieber’s arguments to be weak. Dr. Leah Dickstein, of the University of Louisville, was in contact with the actual patient “Sybil,” who confirmed the book as being entirely factual. In any case, the film remains a powerful one. Sybil is above all a testament to the human spirit, that this fragile young girl managed to find a way to survive despite the worst imaginable abuse.

Read more: http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/995/Sybil-1976.html#ixzz0S6dDdHQ3

This incredible psychological true-story regarding multiple personalities is disturbing to read but highly recommended. Sybil

Isabel Dorsett (not her real name) has sixteen separate personalities, two of which are male, and struggles throughout her life to try and live with the frightening ‘dark thing’ which threatens to overcome her. Sybil’s first dissociation happens when she is but a baby and the major cause of her multiple personalities is rooted in her mother, who was likely, a paranoid schizophrenic. Sybil fights an increasing ‘loss of time’ where she cannot remember why she has ended up in a certain place or why ‘that dress’ hangs in her closet. Knowing she is mentally ill, she begs her father, Willard Dorsett, to allow her to visit a psychiatrist. Her local physician suggests a Dr. Wilbur, a female psychologist, but her parents are skeptical. Highly religious, they believe that such intervention is sinful. Yet, Mr. Dorsett knows there is something drastically wrong and reluctantly allows Sybil to visit the doctor in August, 1958. Sybil, though desperately needing help, tries to disguise her problem and before she can receive any real help, comes down with a fever and unbeknownst to her, her mother Hattie cancels her appointment. In 1948 Hattie dies and Sybil tries to work but her bouts with ‘lost time’ continue until finally, in 1954, she locates Dr. Wilbur in New York and moves there for therapy. It is months after her first session that Dr. Wilbur meets the first of the many other personalities in Sybil. Her name is Vicky, and she knows what all the ‘others’ do and think, but keeps all knowledge of her other selves from Sybil. Dr. Wilbur is excited. This is a major breakthrough and she reads all she can on dual personalities. Nothing much has been noted except for the highly publicized story of Eve who had three distinctive personalities. Before long, Dr. Wilbur discovers that Sybil has many more than three personalities. All multiple personalities have one which knows everything and Dr. Wilbur becomes very dependent on Vicky to keep her updated on the actions of the ‘others’. The most notable after Vicky are Peggy Lou and Peggy Ann who reflect Sybil’s unrealized anger and fear against her abusive mother. Dr. Wilbur is gradually introduced to the dramatic Vanessa, the artistic Marcia, and the suicidal Sybil Ann. Lurking inside are also two male personalities, the carpenters, Mike and Sid, who have taken on the traits of Sybil’s father Willard, and her tyrannical Grandfather. Willard Dorsett’s chief sin is that he ignored his daughter’s growing

emotional instability and allowed his mentally ill wife to continue raising the child even though he knew Hattie was deeply ill. For two years, Hattie was catatonic, and still Willard did nothing about her condition. Hattie Dorsett, when alert, was a monster. Sexually and physically abusive, Sybil suffered a broken larynx, dislocated shoulder, a bead up her nose, black eyes and constant bruises, as well as intense sexual abuse involving a shoe hook which resulted in Sybil’s incapability to have children. Why, asked the doctor, when Willard finally agreed to come in for a ‘chat’ did he allow this to go on? Passive and indifferent, Willard answered he simply felt that a mother should raise her child and that their belief in God was enough. It was not and a shaken Willard agrees that Sybil needs much more therapy and agrees to send his daughter a check each month to make sure she is treated. Sybil, after three years of intense sessions with Dr. Willard is still reluctant to ‘meet’ her other personalities. She believes that her other selves may have committed ‘sins’ and deeply religious, Sybil is terrified to learn what they might have really done. After the ‘Peggy’s’ flee to the countryside for a holiday, Dr. Wilbur finally convinces Sybil to hear the tapes she’s made about what they did while vacationing. There pastimes were pleasant, even fulfilling and Sybil finally acknowledges their existence and their right to be there. The sixteen personalities were her protectors against the cruel Hattie and the voices that fought back against constant neglect, abuse, and indifference. It is Dr. Wilbur’s duty to try and merge these separate personalities into one new Sybil. It takes eleven years, but finally, after three sessions a week and a financially supportive father, a new Sybil emerges. Sybil realizes her dream to become a college professor and an artist and writes Dr. Wilbur in 1969, after a year of no ‘lost time’ that she is finally not afraid and able to live a full life. Dr. Wilbur goes on to diagnose and treat seven other cases of multiple personalities, though none are as complex and compelling as Sybil’s. The author, Flora Rheta Schreiber, becomes a personal friend of Sybil’s and with her permission, writes a book about her traumatic childhood and dissociations. This book, published in 1972, became an instant best seller, finally resulting in a movie with Sally Field in the lead role. For people who generally do not enjoy non-fiction, this book reads like a sad, yet strangely exhilarating novel and just illustrates how ‘fact really is stranger than fiction.’

Starring:

Sally Field, Joanne Woodward, Martine Bartlett, William Prince, Jane Hoffman

DVD Release Date: 07/18/2006

Production Co.: Lorimar Productions

Director(s): Daniel Petrie

Genre(s): Drama

Themes: Mental Illness, Therapy, Haunted By the Past, Doctors and Patients, Split Personalities

Tone: Deliberate, Matter-of-Fact, Poignant, Angry, Compassionate, Talky

Keywords: mental-illness, multiple-personality, patient [medical], psychiatry, schizophrenia, trauma

Language: English

The multiple award-winning made-for-TV movie Sybil was based on the book by Flora Rheta Schreiber. Sally Field won an Emmy for her portrayal of the title character, a substitute teacher in New York who has developed multiple personality disorder. As a coping mechanism to deal with the abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother, Hattie (Martine Bartlett), Sybil created separate personalities: aggressive Peggy Lou, suicidal Mary, baby Sybil Ann, and several others. Joanne Woodward plays Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, the psychologist who diagnoses Sybil's condition and helps her to get over it. William Prince and Jane Hoffman play her father and stepmother, while Brad Davis appears as her would-be boyfriend Richard. Originally shown in 1976 as a two-part special on NBC for a total of almost four hours, but most home video versions have been edited down to two hours. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Cast Sally Field - Sybil Joanne Woodward - Dr. Wilbur

Martine Bartlett - Hattie

William Prince -

Jane Hoffman - Frieda Dorsett

Gordon Jump -

Brad Davis - Richard

Natasha Ryan -

Charles Lane - Dr. Quinoness

Crew Daniel Petrie - Director Flora Rheta Schreiber - Book Author

Leonard Rosenman - Composer (Music Score)

Mario Tosi - Cinematographer

Stewart Stern - Screenwriter

Never Promised You a Rose GardenSynopsis

Without ever revealing the diagnosis, this film chronicles the inner life and outer circumstances of Deborah Blake (Kathleen Quinlan), a young mental patient. As the film opens, she is being accompanied by her subdued parents to yet another mental hospital. This one looks clean and cheerful, at least. Her treatment is handled by Dr. Fried (Bibi Andersson), a very skillful therapist who gets past her deranged defenses and reveals that Deborah harbors some very violent fantasies about some of her relatives. The movie is based on the best-selling autobiographical novel by Joanne Greenberg. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Cast Bibi Andersson - Dr. Fried Kathleen Quinlan - Deborah Blake

Ben Piazza - Mr. Blake

Lorraine Gary - Mrs. Blake

Martine Bartlett - Secret Wife of Henry VIII

Darlene Craviotto - Carla

Reni Santoni - Hobbs

Susan Tyrrell - Lee

Signe Hasso - Helene

Norman Alden - McPherson

Sylvia Sidney - Miss Coral

Barbara Steele - Idat

Lynne Stewart -

Cynthia Szigeti -

Richard Herd - Dr. Halle

Nancy Parsons -

Samantha Harper - Teacher in Ward D

Sarah Cunningham - Mrs. Forbes

Cherry Davis - Nurses in Ward D

June C. Ellis - The Spy

Mary Carver - Eugenia

Carol Androsky -

Dennis Quaid -

Diane Varsi - Sylvia

Robert Viharo - Anterrabae

Carol Worthington -

Jeff Conaway - Lactamaeon

Helen Verbit -

Jan Burrell -

Donald Bishop - Doctor in Ward D

Leigh Curran - Women in Ward D

Crew Anthony Page - Director Daniel H. Blatt - Producer

Edgar J. Scherick - Producer

Michael Hausman - Producer

Roger Corman - Producer

Terence F. Deane - Producer

Art Names - Sound/Sound Designer

Bruce Logan - Cinematographer

Garth Craven - Editor

Gavin Lambert - Screenwriter

J. Michael Riva - Production Designer

Jane Ruhm - Costume Designer

Joanne Greenberg - Book Author

Lewis John Carlino - Screenwriter

Paul Chihara - Screenwriter, Composer (Music Score)

Toby Carr Rafelson - Set Designer, Production Designer

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama

Nominated Hollywood Foreign Press Association

1977

Kathleen Quinlan

Best Adapted Screenplay

Nominated Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie

1977

Lewis John CarlinoGavin Lambert

Summary

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is a semi-autobiographical account of a teenage girl's three-year battle with schizophrenia. Deborah Blau, bright and artistically talented, has created a world, the Kingdom of Yr, as a form of defense from a confusing, frightening reality. When Deborah was five, she underwent surgery to remove a tumor in her ovaries, a traumatic experience that involved a great deal of physical pain and shame. During her childhood, Deborah suffered frequent abuse from her anti-Semitic peers and neighbors. When Deborah first created Yr, it was a beautiful, comforting haven, but over time the gods of Yr became tyrannical dictators who ruled Deborah's every word and action.

The novel presents the issue of mental illness from multiple viewpoints. Deborah's three years in the hospital provide us with a portrait of mental illness as it is experienced by the patient. Deborah's parents, Esther and Jacob, are torn between their love for their daughter and their shame at the stigma of her illness. Nevertheless, they find the courage to allow Deborah to continue treatment even when there are few signs of recovery for a long while. Deborah struggles with guilt and resentment at her parents' disappointed expectations for her while her younger sister Suzy copes with her frustration at having to arrange her life around Deborah's illness.

Deborah's strong-willed, empathetic, brilliant therapist, Clara Fried, slowly wins Deborah's trust. She never forces Deborah to accept her point of view. Over the course of three years, she helps Deborah gain the courage to fight her illness. Her goal is to give Deborah the ability to choose between the reality of Earth, despite all its faults and problems, over the phantoms of Yr. Meanwhile, Deborah develops friendships of a kind with the other patients in the hospital despite their fear of emotional investment in other people. Although she fears the reality of Earth, Deborah eventually earns a GED and resolves to win her struggle against her illness.

Characters

Deborah Blau  -  Deborah is the protagonist of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. The novel chronicles her three-year battle with schizophrenia in mental hospital. With the help of her dedicated therapist, Dr. Fried, Deborah finds the courage to emerge from the Kingdom of Yr, a world Deborah created as a defense against a confusing, frightening reality.

Esther Blau  -  Esther Blau is Deborah's mother. During the course of the novel, she comes to terms with her daughter's illness. Her strength, faith, and love in her daughter helps her insist that Deborah continue receiving treatment even when she seems to show few signs of improvement or recovery.

Jacob Blau  -  Jacob Blau is Deborah's father. He feels alternately guilty and angry at Deborah's condition. Over the years, he has had financial difficulties, forcing him to live on the charity of is in-laws. During Deborah's treatment, Esther realizes that she always placed Jacob's wishes second after her father's.

Suzy Blau  -  Suzy Blau is Deborah's younger sister. Esther and Jacob do not tell her the truth about Deborah's illness until it becomes clear that there is no quick and easy cure. Although she loves Deborah, Suzy feels neglected because she often has to arrange her life around the whims of her older sister's illness.

Esther's parents  -  Esther's parents are wealthy first generation Jewish immigrants. Esther's father, a Latvian immigrant with a clubfoot, has been driven by anger and resentment for all of his life. The old insults of a long-dead Latvian nobleman continue to drive his ambition to build a wealthy dynasty in the United States.

Dr. Clara Fried  -  Dr. Clara Fried is Deborah's famous German therapist. Although it means she will have to decline several other professional opportunities, Dr. Fried takes on Deborah's case. Her empathy is arguably her greatest gift as a doctor. With her help, Deborah gains to courage to fight her way to mental health.

Miss Coral Allen  -  Miss Coral Allen is a well-educated, elderly mental patient at Deborah's hospital. She teaches Deborah everything she knows about Latin and Greek.

Carmen -  Carmen is briefly a patient at Deborah's hospital. Her multimillionaire father takes her out of the hospital before she can receive treatment. Shortly thereafter, she commits suicide. After she hears the news, Deborah realizes that her parents allowed her to stay even when there were few signs of recovery for a long while.

Claude and Natalie  -  Claude and Natalie are Esther's siblings.

Quentin Dobshansky  -  Quentin Dobshansky is one of the attendants at the mental hospital. It pains Deborah that he is nervous around her sometimes because she has a mental illness.

Ellis -  Ellis is a Conscientious Objector. When given a choice between prison and working in the mental hospital, he chooses the hospital. He is the replacement for Hobbs, an attendant who commits suicide during the course of the novel. Ellis's fear and hatred of the mental patients is evident in his every gesture. The patients, sensing that Ellis himself has mental problems, torment him by ridiculing his fundamental religious beliefs. McPherson, another attendant, convinces Deborah and the other patients to stop tormenting them. Later, Deborah witnesses Ellis physically abuse Helene, but no one takes her seriously when she reports it.

Eugenia -  Eugenia and Deborah became friends because they attended the same summer camp when they were children. One day, Deborah found Eugenia naked in the camp bathroom. She gave Deborah a belt and asked Deborah to beat her. Deborah refused and never spoke to Eugenia again.

Mrs. Forbes -  Mrs. Forbes is an attendant at the hospital. She is well liked by the patients, so they try to protect her from harm. However, Miss Coral breaks her arm by throwing a bed at her during a psychotic episode.

Dr. Halle -  Halle is a well-liked doctor at the mental hospital. When Carla and Deborah escape from the hospital on a lark, he decides not to punish them upon their return because he is pleased that they had fun.

Helene -  Helene is a well-educated patient at the hospital. She is prone to frequent violent psychotic episodes. During one such episode, she breaks a tray over Deborah's head. Afterwards, Deborah is angry that everyone rushes to contain Helene, but no one bothers to check on her, the victim.

Hobbs -  Hobbs is an attendant at the hospital. Sensing that Hobbs also suffers from mental problems, the patients torment and abuse him. Hobbs eventually commits suicide and is replaced by Ellis, a Conscientious Objector.

Mrs. King -  When Deborah enters her third year of treatment, she requests permission to live in the town near the hospital as an outpatient. She rents a room from Mrs. King. Mrs. King has not lived in the town long enough to acquire the fear and contempt that the other residents feel toward the outpatients from the hospital.

Dr. Lister -  Dr. Lister is the Blaus' family physician. Esther and Jacob put Deborah in the mental hospital at his recommendation.

McPherson -  McPherson is a well-liked attendant at the hospital. He convinces Deborah and the other patients to stop tormenting Ellis.

Lee Miller  -  Lee Miller is one of the patients at the mental hospital. When the normally silent Sylvia speaks, Lee hurries to inform the medical staff. Deborah admires her for having the courage to participate in reality for Sylvia's benefit even though Sylvia will probably not thank her for it.

Doris Rivera  -  When Deborah arrives at the hospital, Doris Rivera is a legend because she managed to leave the hospital to live a normal life in the outside world. Her success frightens the patients because they fear that they might one day have to try to live in the outside world, too. When Doris is re-committed to the hospital, the other patients are also bitterly disappointed because they secretly hope they can get well despite their fears.

Dr. Royson -  When Dr. Fried leaves the hospital during one summer, Dr. Royson takes over Deborah's case temporarily. He and Deborah do not get along because he focuses on trying to logically prove to her that Yr is Deborah's own creation, not a real kingdom.

Carla Stoneham  -  Carla Stoneham is a patient at the mental hospital. When Carla was young, her mother shot Carla, Carla's brother, and then herself. Only Carla survived. Over the course of their three years at the hospital together, she and Deborah become friends.

Sylvia -  Sylvia is a patient at the mental hospital. She is normally silent and withdrawn. When Helene attacks Sylvia in a fit of violence, Sylvia makes no outward sign of distress. While the staff rushes to contain Helene, only Deborah understands why Sylvia needs attention as much as Helene. The same thing happened when Helene attacked Deborah. Deborah wants to offer Sylvia comfort, but she can't bring herself to do it.

Tilda -  Tilda is one of Dr. Fried's former patients. Dr. Fried treated her in Nazi Germany before immigrating to the United States. Tilda once escaped the hospital, only to return to tell Dr. Fried that the outside world was crazier than the one inside the hospital.

Dr. Dowben, Dr. Fiorentini, Dr. Adams, Dr. Craig, Dr. Venner, Dr. Hill, Dr. Ogden, Dr. Oster  -  These individuals all work as doctors at the mental hospital. They have widely varied relationships with the patients, some more understanding and empathetic than others.

Constantia, Miss Cabot, Mary, Linda, Marion, Sue, Marie, Lena, Lucia, Della, and Lucy  -  These individuals are patients in the mental hospital.

Anterrabae -  Anterrabae, or the Falling God, is the most powerful being in the Kingdom of Yr, a world that Deborah created as a defense against a confusing and frightening reality.

The Censor  -  The Censor is a being in the Kingdom of Yr, a world that Deborah created as a defense against a confusing and frightening reality. Once, Deborah accidentally left a clue in the real world to the existence of Yr, so the gods of Yr created the Censor to guard Yr's secrets from Earth. Over time, the Censor has become a tyrant who watches and controls all of Deborah's actions to prevent her from revealing Yr's existence.

The Collect -  The Collect is the chorus of voices that constantly criticize Deborah in Yr. The Collect represents all the teachers, peers, and neighbors who abused and insulted Deborah throughout her childhood and adolescence.

Idat -  Idat, the Dissembler, is a beautiful goddess in Yr, a world Deborah created as a defense against a confusing, frightening reality.

Lactamaeon -  Lactamaeon is the second most powerful god in Yr, a world that Deborah created as a defense against a confusing, frightening reality.

Chapters 1-5

Summary

Esther and Jacob Blau drive their 16-year-old daughter Deborah to a mental hospital for treatment after a failed suicide attempt. Deborah, suffering from schizophrenia, retreats into a world of her own making, the Kingdom of Yr, when the real world proves too frightening and confusing. Deborah is pleased to see that there are bars on the hospital's windows, but her parents cringe when they hear a high scream inside.

Jacob and Esther decide to tell Deborah's younger sister Suzy and Esther's parents that Deborah is at a convalescent school. Meanwhile, Dr. Fried contemplates taking on Deborah's case despite her busy schedule. She loves working with patients because they can examine sanity in a way that sane people cannot. As she muses that the world outside is often sicker than the world inside a mental hospital, she recalls treating a patient named Tilda in Nazi Germany.

In Yr, Deborah named herself Januce. She accidentally wrote this name on one of her school papers, a grave mistake because it revealed a clue of Yr's existence in the Earth world. Afterward, Yr created the Censor to guard its secrets from Earth. During her first session, Deborah accuses Dr. Fried of wishing to make her "friendly and sweet and agreeable and happy" with telling lies. Dr. Fried explains that she does not think that Deborah's complaints of illness are lies. She believes that Deborah is indeed sick, but not physically. She promises that hard work and good treatment can make her well.

Esther and Jacob feel as if they failed their daughter in some way. When Esther writes to request a visit, Deborah tells Fried that she will see her mother, but not her father because she fears that he might take her from the hospital out of misguided pity and love. Jacob is hurt and angry to learn of Deborah's refusal to see him. Suzy, although she has recently come into her own, must still rearrange her social life around the whims of Deborah's illness.

Esther tells Dr. Fried about her family history before visiting Deborah. Her father was a Latvian immigrant with a clubfoot. His anger and resentment drove him to seek an education and build a fortune in the United States. He purchased a home in a rich neighborhood where he hoped that his children would gain admittance to the

American elite. However, his neighbors were rabidly anti-Semitic, so they never accepted his family. Esther's parents disapproved of Jacob, but when Deborah was born blond and fair, the family rejoiced at its good luck. Although Jacob struggled to make a living as an accountant during the Depression, Esther's parents lavished expensive clothing, nannies, and toys on Deborah. Esther and Jacob were forced to move in with Esther's parents, much to Jacob's shame and unhappiness.

When Deborah was 5, she suffered from incontinence that no physical punishment could correct. It was later discovered that a tumor was the cause, not laziness. A renowned specialist performed a successful surgery, but Deborah suffered excruciating pain for some time afterwards. After the stillbirth of twin boys, Esther became pregnant with Suzy, but she tried to maintain a smooth, calm face for Deborah. Jacob obtained a lucrative account and bought a house of his own, but he later discovered that the account was based on a vast chain of fraud after a year. They sold the house, and Esther's parents gave them their house. Meanwhile Deborah attended a summer camp for three years before her parents learned that it was rabidly anti-Semitic. The Second World War brought financial difficulties, so Jacob and Esther were forced to sell her parent's house and move into an apartment. Deborah became passionately interested in art, so the family assumed that her sensitivity and frequent insomnia were only the signs of an artist's temperament. Soon thereafter, Deborah attempted suicide.

Esther now feels guilty for placing Jacob second in her affections after her father. She now understands that Jacob was humiliated all those years to live off her parents' charity. Dr. Fried assures Esther that she and Jacob should not blame themselves for Deborah's illness. She warns Esther that Deborah is extremely sensitive to lying, so she should be careful to tell the truth.

Commentary

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden portrays mental illness as a problem that concerns not just the patient, but the patient's family and the team of medical authorities dedicated to treating the victims of mental illness. Greenberg tries to garner sympathy and respect for sufferers of mental illness and their families by illustrating the difficult struggle they face. Treatment is expensive, thereby placing it out of the reach of many sufferers. However, even families with the means to pay for treatment must struggle to overcome their own prejudices regarding mental illness and cope with the prejudices of others.

Deborah's parents want her to get well, but they know little about the reality of mental illness beyond the prevalent negative stereotypes of patients and mental hospitals. They fear the hospital as a labyrinthine, medieval prison for dangerous raving lunatics. Nevertheless, they have chosen to place their trust in their family physician, Dr. Lister, who recommended that Deborah be left there for treatment. The struggle to counter their irrational fears and prejudices is by no means easy. They fear the reaction of their relatives should the "secret" of Deborah's illness be known. They face self-doubt and self-blame now that Deborah has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Nevertheless, Deborah's parents are willing to make the leap of faith required of them if their daughter is to receive treatment, an admirable act of courage and love.

Greenberg clearly does not glamorize, nor does she over-simplify, the difficulties that face mentally ill patients and their families. The medical staff members at the hospital likewise face a great deal of difficulty treating their patients. They have to counter the fear and doubt of their patients' families and the patients themselves. It is a stressful, emotionally difficult profession that often requires them to oppose a family's well-intended, but frequently destructive, wishes for their loved ones. Greenberg memorializes the courage and perseverance of dedicated therapists and psychiatrists in Clara Fried, Deborah's empathetic, sensitive, brilliant doctor. Treating the mentally ill is often an art as much as it is scientific endeavor, requiring emotional strength, intelligence, and intuition as well as education and experience. The relationship between the doctor and the patient is a complex matter, of which clinical training is only one part.

Dr. Fried practiced in Nazi Germany, so she knows that irrational prejudices can converge to produce a society seemingly gone mad with fear and hatred, making the inside of the mental hospital look sane by comparison. She knows that people all too often misuse the terms "sane" and "insane" to bolster their so-called "rational" beliefs, often based on irrational prejudice. Therefore, Greenberg wishes her readers to consider "insane" and "sane" as subjective words, not clinical terms with an absolute value or an absolute truth. Deborah is mentally ill, but to call her "insane" would be tantamount to belittling her problem, exiling her to a realm beyond hope or treatment. Dr. Fried, on the other hand, views Deborah as hopeful case who has many good years ahead of her if she receives effective treatment.

Ironically, Deborah and her family have been the victims of irrational anti-Semitic prejudices in the United States. Therefore, Dr. Fried's experiences in Nazi Germany prove invaluable to her relationship with Deborah. Again, the relationship between the doctor and the patient is a complex combination of factors not entirely encompassed by the doctor's clinical education.

Likewise, Deborah's illness is also affected by a complex combination of factors that influence how she expresses her illness: her tumor at the age of five, her grandfather's martyr complex, her father's shame at depending on her grandparents financially, and the anti-Semitic prejudices of her peers and neighbors. Over the years, Deborah outwardly expressed her illness through complaints of physical pains only to be told there was nothing wrong with her. She grew alienated and bitter, so Dr. Fried must penetrate through Deborah's barrier of distrust and fear before she can treat her illness. This requires an emotional intelligence and empathy that few people can learn through clinical training.

Chapters 6-10

Summary

When Deborah's tumor was discovered, she felt violated when the doctors examined her, and enraged when they told her that there would be no pain. She tells Dr. Fried that an intern explained that they lied to her so that she would not be afraid. Deborah utters a word of Yr's language during the session. Terrified at her indiscretion, she flees into Yr completely.

Deborah meets Carla, another patient on her ward. Carla's mother shot Carla, Carla's brother, and then herself, but Carla survived. Inside the mental hospital, Carla and other patients are free to call themselves "crazy." Yri language describes Deborah's pain and suffering more accurately than Earth language. Nevertheless, at Dr. Fried's urging, she struggles to describe her feelings in English. When Suzy was born, Deborah horrified the family by declaring that the wrinkled, red baby was ugly. Her family has stood aloof from her since that day while they all loved Suzy, beautiful and carefree, unconditionally. When she started school late, her classmates also stood apart from her. Deborah feels that her mother had recognized the "fatal taint" in her and tried to ameliorate it by taking her classmates out on an excursion. As she recounts the anti-Semitic taunts of her neighbors and peers, Deborah is grateful for Dr. Fried's expression of indignation.

Later, the gods of Yr shout that Deborah is not "one of them." When Deborah slashes her arm with a piece of tin, she is moved to the Disturbed Ward, where she is pleased to find that all pretensions to normalcy are absent. She begins telling Dr. Fried about Yr. At first Yr was a comforting haven, but it has become a source of pain, fear, and tyranny. Afterwards, Deborah suffers a psychotic episode, so the staff places her in restraints. Deborah explains to Dr. Fried that the gods of Yr told her that Three Changes and Their Mirrors would precede her Death. As Deborah recounts three separate incidents in her life, later mirrored by three other incidents,

Dr. Fried suggests that Deborah has created a meaningful connection between these events in order to understand and survive in the confusing, inexplicable real world.

The patients on Deborah's ward single out a particular attendant, Hobbs, for abuse. The patients understand that Hobbs fears their insanity because a seed of it exists inside himself. Meanwhile, Helene, a volatile patient, violently attacks Deborah. As in the real world, the attacker receives more attention that the victim. Earlier, Helene showed Deborah a picture of a college classmate. Deborah realizes that Helene attacked her in order to erase that moment of vulnerability.

During one session, Deborah furiously sketches a portrait of her Yri self. Dr. Fried is excited that Deborah has lost her apathy in her attempt to prove that Yr exists. Meanwhile, Carla joins the Disturbed Ward because she wants to stop hiding her "insanity." The other wards are too invested in keeping up the appearance of normalcy. They learn of Doris Rivera, a patient who became well enough to leave after three years at the hospital. The gods of Yr shout that Deborah can never go out into the world again, so Deborah suffers another psychotic episode along with a number of other patients. Carla says that they were all afraid of the threat of having to be well that Doris Rivera represented. Deborah curses Carla and then apologizes because what Carla said might be true.

Meanwhile, Esther and Jacob worry over Deborah's transfer to the Disturbed ward. Suzy shouts that everyone is always worrying about Deborah. Esther visits with Dr. Fried, hoping that she will be allowed to see Deborah, although there is a rule against visits on the Disturbed Ward. In another session, Deborah declares that her essence is poisonous, so she destroyed her sister Suzy. Dr. Fried suggests that she is attempting to hide from the truth of what she actually did to her family, what they actually did to her, and what she is doing to herself. Deborah confesses that she tried to kill Suzy after she was born. Her mother discovered her just as she was poised to throw Suzy out a window. She was never punished, and her parents never spoke of the incident.

Commentary

Deborah's early childhood surgery clearly had an important influence on how Deborah later expressed her mental illness. The suffering caused by her mental illness expressed itself in phantom physical pains that are clearly "translations" of the physical pain she suffered as a result of her tumor and subsequent surgery. However, when she visited doctors about these pains, no one recognized these

pains as symptoms of a mental illness rather than the complaints of a hypochondriac. Therefore, Deborah was continually told that there was nothing wrong with her at all. The combination of these factors has made it difficult for Deborah to trust anyone.

Deborah has known that she is ill for a long while, but she has been unable to convince others of the existence of her illness until her failed suicide attempt, a cry for recognition of her suffering and for help. Her relationship with Dr. Fried is still in its developing stages, but Dr. Fried acknowledges the truth of Deborah's conviction that she is sick and has been sick for a long while. Her job now is to explain the nature of the illness to Deborah and to help her fight it.

It is important to consider Yr as a symptom of Deborah's illness. Yr is also sort of map to Deborah's illness. It has its own language and its own logic, a logic that replaced the confusing, seemingly irrational logic of Earth, a logic that Deborah has come to view as a structure of lies and deception. Yr's language expresses the suffering and pain that others have told her are nonexistent. It would be too simple to dismiss Yr as an "imaginary world." It is real for Deborah. Likewise, the phantom physical pains were real for her. Both these pains and Yr are symptoms of her mental illness, although she did not know this before she was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Dr. Fried accepts the "reality" of Yr, an important action on her part because it is crucial to Deborah's ability to trust her. She helps Deborah to read the logic of Yr in new ways: to use it to understand her illness and how to fight it. The Three Changes and Their Mirrors is on one level an expression of the worsening state of Deborah's illness. This prophecy of doom gives Deborah a comprehensible narrative that explains her sense of foreboding. Dr. Fried encourages her to re-interpret Yr as a means to give comprehensible meaning to the real world's often confusing, illogical laws. She also prompts Deborah to examine the prophecy of doom as an expression of her illness's progression.

Deborah's psychotic episodes often correspond with moments in which she reveals details of Yr to Dr. Fried. Although it may look like her illness is getting worse, it is actually a sign that she has begun to fight it. She has begun to resist the tyranny that Yr exerts over her actions and thoughts. For years, she hid Yr, but now that she is inside the hospital, she no longer feels the same pressure to hide her illness--to live a lie. She can suffer from her illness openly, and therefore, she is free to address it through treatment.

Greenberg also prompts her readers to re-interpret the often frightening, seemingly irrational actions of mentally ill people. On the surface, the torment and abuse that the patients unleash on Hobbs may seem completely inexplicable and irrational. However, through Deborah's perspective, we learn that there is a logic behind their behavior. Hobbs fears his own mentally unstable characteristics. He wants the patients to act outwardly more "insane" than he does so that he can safely draw a distinction between himself and them. The patients sense this desire, so they give him what he wants from them. At the mention of Doris Rivera's successful transition, several patients, including Deborah, suffer psychotic episodes. On the surface, the two things may seem unrelated. However, the rash of psychotic episodes is an expression of the patients' fears and doubts regarding their own abilities to make the same transition.

Chapters 11-15

Summary

After Hobbs commits suicide, he is replaced with a Conscientious Objector, Ellis. Sylvia announces that it is against the Conscientious Objector's religion to commit suicide. Normally, Sylvia is silent, so Lee Miller hurries to inform a nurse that Sylvia spoke. Deborah admires Lee for joining reality for Sylvia's benefit. Deborah descends into a psychotic episode as Yr's gods declare that they will punish her with insanity if she dares to admire the Earth world.

The patients continually ridicule Ellis' religious beliefs. Deborah taunts him with a comparison between psychotics and religious zealots. Ellis considers himself a Christian martyr. McPherson, a popular attendant who is never attacked, asks Deborah to leave Ellis alone. Deborah declares that neither Ellis nor Hobbs was different from the patients. McPherson angrily tells her that a lot of people who need, even want, help cannot afford to get it. Although she is terrified, Deborah is happy that McPherson treated her with the respect one accords an equal.

Dr. Fried states that Yr is Deborah's own creation, acknowledging that it is nevertheless real for Deborah. Deborah realizes now that her grandfather's bitter anger and resentment against the long-dead Latvian noblemen is part of her illness. His pride in her was also an expression of his anger and the battle with the Latvian noblemen that mattered only to him. In the United States, there were new battles against anti-Semitic Americans. The adults were amazed at her sharp wit, but children saw through it, so they tormented her. Suddenly Deborah recalls a distant memory of being cared for by a nurse. She felt that the world had gone gray. Dr. Fried suggests that she is remembering feelings of abandonment after her mother

had to go away for rest after miscarrying her twin sons. Deborah experiences these same feelings and colorlessness when she suffers psychotic episodes. When Dr. Fried touches Deborah to comfort her, the doctor's touch feels like lightening to Deborah.

Many nurses and attendants are afraid of the similarities between themselves and the patients. Deborah tries to comfort those who are frightened of her, but she only succeeds in frightening them more. Yr's gods declares that she will taint those of the Earth world, triggering a psychotic episode. When she comes to, Helene is restrained in a nearby bed. Ellis enters the room to take Helene's pulse. When she resists, he methodically slaps her into submission. Deborah later reports his violence to the ward staff, but no one takes her seriously.

Deborah gives Dr. Fried the name Furii, or Fire-Touch, in Yri. Dr. Fried promises to mention Ellis' violence at the staff meeting, but she warns Deborah that she has no control over the Disturbed Ward's policy. Deborah declares that Dr. Fried's reality is useless if it is so unjust. Dr. Fried reminds her that she only promised to help Deborah become free of her illness, so that she could fight for peace, happiness, and justice. Dr. Fried suddenly remembers that when Tilda once escaped the hospital in Nazi Germany, she returned to tell Dr. Fried that the world outside was crazier than she was.

Dr. Fried demands that Deborah address her relationship with her father. Deborah confesses that she and her father share the same violent temper. Once, when a man flashed Deborah, he acted as if Deborah had attracted this perverted attention. Deborah cried out that she had already been broken and violated, so she was not good enough for a better kind of man. Her father slapped her because he secretly had entertained the same thoughts. Dr. Fried promises Deborah that after their work is done, Deborah will be free to choose between Earth and insanity.

Miss Coral, an elderly former patient, returns to the hospital. Despite her age and small stature, she can fight so fiercely that it takes several attendants to subdue her. When Lee tells Deborah that Miss Coral knows several languages, Deborah asks Miss Coral to teach them to her, and Miss Coral agrees. When Carla informs Deborah that she is moving to the B Ward, Deborah is afraid to realize that she will miss her. After Miss Coral imparts everything she knows of Latin and Greek, she informs Deborah that Ellis is fluent in Greek and that he might be willing to teach her.

Commentary

One of the problems common to most of Deborah's fellow patients is a fear of emotional investment in others. However, the prejudices and misunderstanding of others is partly responsible for Deborah's fear of emotional investment. Throughout her childhood, she faced the anti-Semitic prejudices of her peers and neighbors, and now she struggles with the stigma of mental illness. Even in the hospital, she overhears the staff criticize her as a spoiled little rich girl who doesn't even know the meaning of suffering. Nevertheless, Greenberg explains their insensitivity as a combination of the difficult, stressful conditions under which they work and the stigmatized status of mental illness.

Moreover, Deborah's fear of emotional investment does translate into a lack of desire or an inability to connect with others. Deborah admires Lee for reporting Sylvia's unusual decision to speak. She is also pleased that McPherson treats her with the respect one accords an equal when he requests that she cease tormenting Ellis. Ellis, like Hobbs, gets what he wants from the patients. They recognize his martyr complex, so they go out of their way to reinforce it. McPherson admonishes Deborah for being so self-centered as to think that she and the other patients have "a corner on suffering." He not only believes that she is capable of empathy and moral behavior--he expects it of her. He does not treat her as a helpless invalid, but he is not insensitive to her suffering either.

The gods of Yr threaten to punish Deborah with "insanity" if she dares to continue admiring the real world. Ironically, this actually conceals an unconscious acknowledgement on Deborah's part that her illness, not the world, is the enemy. Meanwhile, Dr. Fried continues to encourage Deborah to examine Yr as a symptom of her illness and a manifestation of human fears, shame, and doubt. She doesn't belittle Yr as an "imaginary" phantom that Deborah should discard immediately because she recognizes Yr as a part of Deborah's subjective "reality." Deborah gives Dr. Fried an Yri name, a sign that she has begun to include Dr. Fried as a part of her "reality," a part of the logic she has created to understand and interact with the world through Yr. Hence, Deborah has begun to trust Dr. Fried.

Through therapy, Deborah begins to understand the origins of her conviction that she carries a fatal, poisonous taint. Prior to the discovery of her tumor, she suffered from incontinence. She was punished severely for it until it was discovered that a tumor was the cause. It did not help that the tumor affected her reproductive organs, a part of the female body that was, and often still is, shrouded in shame and secrecy. Hence, shame and illness were connected in Deborah's mind from an early age. Jacob's irrational fear that sexual perverts would victimize Deborah was

coupled with a conviction that Deborah somehow attracted such men. Moreover, the surgery itself came to represent a loss of sexual purity in his mind as well as hers, so the connection between shame, taint, and illness was strengthened further. However, Dr. Fried prompts Deborah to recognize Jacob's feelings and actions as those of a fallible human being, not a monster.

Deborah examines her grandfather's intense desire for perfection as a reaction to the humiliation and insults that he suffered at the hands of the Latvian aristocracy. His tormentors' assertion that he was worthless because he was a clubfoot Jew was based on irrational prejudice. However, he tried to rationally prove them "wrong" through the greatness and brilliance of his family. He wanted Deborah to be sharp and witty because he viewed her as a part of his struggle for acceptance and respect. Deborah's peers recognized that her sharp wit as a disguise for her insecurity and desire for acceptance. They proceeded to attack her where she was weakest--by rejecting her as a "dirty Jew." Hence, Deborah's conviction that she has a fatal, poisonous taint is perhaps related to the prejudice against her ethnic and religious identity.

Deborah actively participates in the laws of the real world when she reports Ellis' violence. She is disappointed that her actions do not immediately result in the justice she seeks for Helene. Dr. Fried reminds her that laws of reality are imperfect. Therefore, a desire for perfection, a prevalent theme in Deborah's family, is destined for disappointment. Unlike Yr and its gods, Dr. Fried does not try to dominate Deborah. She promises to help Deborah freely make a choice between Yr and the real world, and to give her the means to fight for justice and happiness if she chooses the real world. Therefore, Dr. Fried does not play the tyrant as Deborah's imaginary gods do, but attempts to help Deborah regain control over her own reality, including Yr.

Chapters 16-19

Summary

Esther and Jacob finally admit that Deborah's illness does not have a quick and easy cure. Therefore, they tell Suzy the truth. Suzy, against all their expectations, takes the news calmly. She had always wondered why the reports from the hospital never mentioned physical problems. Now that she knows about Deborah's illness, everything makes sense. She hopes that Deborah will be well enough to return home soon.

Deborah once thought that she alone had a poisoned and poisoning substance, but now it seems that all the patients on the Disturbed Ward have the same taint. Deborah tells Dr. Fried that when she was nine, Yr gave her the ability to change her form. So, when the Second World War began, Deborah became Japanese. She was disguised as an American, but she was a captured Japanese soldier. Her transformation gave meaning to Yr's declaration that she was not "one of them."

After the session, Deborah senses Yr's oncoming punishment, so she asks a nurse to prepare her for restraints. Yr declares that her coming to the hospital was all part of the plan. The Third Mirror, the last deception, is yet to come. When she comes to, she is in pain due to the lack of movement and circulation in her legs. Deborah calls out for help, but the staff in long in responding. When she asked the nurse to prepare the restraints, Deborah had willingly asked for help for the first time. With the lingering pain in her legs, she considers the staff's "help" a cruel joke, a deception. Deborah relates all of this to Dr. Fried and declares that she knows Dr. Fried plans to betray her. Dr. Fried denies the accusation, but Deborah demands proof. Dr. Fried replies that time itself will prove her loyalty.

When Doris Rivera is brought back to the hospital, screaming and fighting, Deborah bitterly declares that the hope she represented was false after all. Deborah asks Doris if the world proved too tough for her, and Doris responds with bitter, angry sarcasm that she was simply too tough for the world. Later, Deborah breaks her ankle in an accident and has to be treated at another hospital, where the staff watches her with a morbid curiosity. Deborah realizes that this is what she and other patients will have to face when they leave the mental hospital.

Deborah confesses to Dr. Fried that she was tempted to act out "insanity" at the other hospital. Dr. Fried suggests that she would do better to help others understand mental illness. Deborah insists that her poisoned and poisoning substance only lets her have a kinship with people who share her taint. At camp, she and another girl, Eugenia, became friends. Later, Deborah found Eugenia in the showers, naked and alone. Eugenia gave her a leather belt and asked Deborah to beat her. Deborah, realizing that Eugenia had the same taint, ran away and never spoke to her again. If the same incident happened now, Deborah would not be afraid because she's "crazy now." For years, Deborah knew she was sick, although everyone told her she wasn't. When Dr. Fried told Deborah that she was sick, she proved that Deborah was saner than she thought.

When Carla returns to the Disturbed Ward, Carla assures Deborah that she shouldn't feel bad for her. She became tired because she tried to do too much at once. The gods of Yr declare that Deborah's poisonous essence is destined to

destroy Carla. Deborah continues to share the secrets of Yr with Dr. Fried, but only to hasten the arrival of the final Deceit. Dr. Fried declares that Deborah's desire to meet her final destruction with beauty and poise is simply adolescent melodrama. Dr. Fried announces that she will be gone for the summer, so Dr. Royson will take over Deborah's case temporarily.

Deborah is transferred to the B ward. She convinces herself that Dr. Fried is dead. Dr. Royson attempts to prove to Deborah that the language of Yr is merely Deborah's own creation. Deborah begins to burn herself with stray matches and cigarette butts. After Dr. Halle cleans the wounds, Deborah experiences another psychotic episode. She returns to the Disturbed Ward, where another patient praises her capacity for violence. A doctor, however, reassures her that she didn't hurt anyone.

Commentary

While Deborah struggles to free herself from her illness, her family is also undergoing a difficult coping process. Jacob and Esther do not immediately withdraw Deborah from the hospital after they lose their hope for a quick cure. They allow her to continue receiving treatment despite the lack of clear, defined road to recovery. It takes an admirable amount of courage and faith for them to trust the hospital staff and Deborah, despite the trouble that her illness brings to the family.

By now, it should be clear that extreme alienation, shame, and distrust are important themes in Deborah's personal experiences. She suffered from anti-Semitic prejudice, fear of rejection and abandonment by her family, and intense shame regarding her early childhood surgery. She knew she was sick, but when she tried to draw attention to her symptoms, she was continually told that nothing was wrong. However, it would be a mistake to define her experiences as the "cause" of her illness. They influenced how she regarded her conviction that she was ill, although she didn't know at the time that she was suffering from a mental illness. These experiences shaped how the illness expressed itself, an important distinction.

Deborah's conviction that she became Japanese during the Second World War is clearly a delusion. However, behind this delusion, there is a comprehensible logic. Deborah was treated as an enemy outsider because she was a Jew. During the war, a tide of anti-Japanese hysteria swept the United States. Deborah's conviction that she was Japanese gave meaning to the prejudice Deborah had already suffered for years. Delusion is a characteristic of untreated schizophrenia, but the content of the

delusions is partly influenced by the sufferer's personal experiences. For example, the logic of Yr adjusts to the world of the hospital. The gods of Yr declare that the hospital is the "Third Change" predicted in Yr's prophecy of Deborah's inevitable doom. This new development signals Deborah's difficult struggle to place her trust in the real world at the expense of her trust in the logic of Yr. Dr. Fried does not respond to Deborah's sudden doubts with false promises. She encourages Deborah to overcome her fear and continue her treatment by explaining that time is the best proof of her treatment's value.

Doris Rivera's re-admission to the hospital reawakens Deborah's extreme doubt about her own ability to live and function in the outside world. However, Deborah's anger and disappointment at this turn of events also reveals that she desires the chance to live and function in the real world. Doris represented the hope that she too could recover from mental illness. Nevertheless, as Dr. Fried explained, the road to recovery is a long and difficult process, rife with fear, doubt, and frequent setbacks. Greenberg's portrayal of these difficulties illustrates the tremendous courage and perseverance of the mentally ill exhibit in their struggle to reach mental health, which the vast majority of us take for granted. Her novel is a plea for empathy and understanding.

When Deborah visits another hospital after breaking her ankle, she realizes that part of the difficulty of "making it" in the outside world is dealing with the prevalent prejudices and negative stereotypes of the mentally ill. She is tempted to "justify" these prejudices by playing to the stereotypes for the staff at the other hospital. Dr. Fried points out that Deborah would better cope with these prejudices by helping other to understand mental illness by dispelling the negative myths associated with it rather than giving them what they expect--a stereotypical performance of "insanity."

Deborah's relationship with Dr. Royson is tense and ineffective because of a personality clash more than anything else. Royson's approach to Yr does not work as well as Dr. Fried's. Hence, Greenberg demonstrates that a mentally ill patient's recovery is dependent partly upon the patient's relationship with her or her doctor. Every patient is different, and therefore requires an individualized approach. Dr. Fried chose to participate in the reality that Yr represents while Dr. Royson attempts to treat Deborah by "proving" to her that Yr is her own creation. His approach might work with another patient, but with Deborah, it fails. Deborah sincerely tries to work with Dr. Royson. However, they could not establish the trust and rapport she has with Dr. Fried. This is only a setback in Deborah's treatment, not evidence of failure, or that she cannot overcome her illness. Often, it takes several tries for a patient to find the right doctor.

Chapters 20-23

Summary

Deborah continues to burn herself in order to ease the pressure of the "volcano inside her." She hides the burns so well that a doctor suggests that she might return to the B ward soon. Deborah knows that matches and cigarettes are less guarded on the B ward, so returning there might hasten her death, so she immediately reveals her burns. Although the restrictions on cigarettes and matches are tightened, Deborah still succeeds in stealing them. When Dr. Fried returns, Deborah struggles to explain that she tried to work with Dr. Royson, but he was only interested in being "right." Esther, frightened by the news of Deborah's behavior, meets with Dr. Fried. Dr. Fried does not try to placate her with false hope. She states that she is in high demand, so she would never take on a hopeless case. Dr. Fried hopes that Esther has a dominating, strong will to help her insist that Deborah's treatment continue, despite her family's objections.

Deborah's burn wounds stubbornly refuse to heal. When Helene attacks Sylvia, Sylvia remains silent and motionless, like Deborah did when Helene attacked her. While the staff rushes to contain Helene, Deborah alone understands that Sylvia needs attention as much as Helene. She wants to offer Sylvia comfort, but she cannot bring herself to do it. When she confesses this to Dr. Fried, she reminds Deborah that the world has a host of similar moral quandaries. Deborah states that she thinks, although she doesn't know why, that her habit of burning herself is not as serious as Dr. Fried believes it is. Deborah decides that she will not use the patients' cigarette butts to burn herself because she doesn't want to implicate them in her delinquency. She throws down a book of matches she stole from Dr. Fried, declaring that she will not use her either.

Deborah experiences a psychotic episode in which she writes Yri words all over the bathroom, some of them in her own blood. When she returns to consciousness, she realizes that the death she fears might not be a physical one. Deborah explains to Dr. Fried that she felt a combination of fear and anger during the episode. Dr. Fried assures her that she has a talent for health and life. Meanwhile, Deborah hears that Miss Coral threw a bed at Mrs. Forbes, one of the few staff members whom the patients try to protect from harm. Deborah, hoping to discover the reason for Miss Coral's violence against Mrs. Forbes, eavesdrops on a conversation in the staff room. Some of the attendants declare that everyone on the ward, including Deborah, is getting sicker.

Dr. Fried asks Deborah if she thinks she's getting sicker. Deborah complains that she is tired of thinking and explaining. She threatens to give up her treatment, and Dr. Fried tells her that the "poor little girl" can stay crazy forever. Dr. Fried again reminds her that she never promised Deborah that it would be easy. Deborah states that she doesn't think she's getting sicker at all. Dr. Fried repeats this assertion during a staff meeting. Afterwards, Dr. Royson states that he simply didn't get along with Deborah. He believes that Dr. Fried should be trusted.

Deborah suffers frequent psychotic episodes, but the staff seems to treat her more kindly. Dr. Fried says that the reason is that Deborah has lost her "stoniness of expression." Deborah is afraid because she has often made enemies because people misinterpreted her facial expressions. When Deborah and an attendant are walking through the cold, Deborah declares that they at least only have one kind of cold, one that a coat can alleviate. The attendant angrily denies this, explaining that the patients do not have to work at hard jobs for low pay while supporting a family. Later, Deborah decides that she will not die. Deborah realizes that being a Japanese soldier represented anger and martyrdom, the characteristics of her grandfather. Meanwhile, Deborah's burns finally begin to heal. Carla returns to the hospital after a brief stint in the world outside.

Dr. Fried tells Deborah that she has realized something about Deborah's confession that she had tried to kill Suzy. A five-year-old could not possibly have lifted a heavy baby out of a bassinet and held it out a window, only to draw it back in a few seconds later. Later when she notices Carla's hands shaking, Deborah steadies them with her own hands.

Commentary

Deborah's self-mutilation may seem like a drastic setback, but it can also be regarded as a form of self-medication. She uses it to relieve the pressure of the "volcano" inside her when therapy with Dr. Royson proves unsuccessful. Although she is convinced that Dr. Fried is dead, one wonders why she is trying to put off the explosion. It is possible that she was waiting for Dr. Fried's return all along, staving off the impending psychotic episode that overtakes her shortly before Dr. Fried's return. Perhaps, then, the self-mutilation is evidence of Deborah's struggle to overcome her fear of abandonment.

Deborah continues to develop a sense of the emotional reality of people around her. Her recognition of Sylvia's silent distress in the aftermath of an attack by Helene reveals that she has developed her capacity for empathy, though she is still

too afraid to act on it. Her decision to stop stealing cigarettes and matches from the other patients and Dr. Fried demonstrates that she has begun to develop a moral code to structure her interactions with the real world. This also constitutes a refusal to allow her illness to dictate her choices and her interaction with the world, an important step in her recovery. She is eventually able to offer comfort to Carla, her friend, indicating that her hesitance to emotionally invest has begun to fade.

Dr. Fried prompts Deborah to form her own opinions about her illness in the wake of Deborah's discovery that the staff believes that she and the other patients are getting "sicker." Deborah finally replies that she doesn't think they are right. She even challenges Dr. Fried's judgment by stating that her recent habit of self-mutilation is not that serious. Hence, Deborah has begun to place trust in herself and her own self-knowledge. Deborah's judgments of her own progress are borne out by the greater expressiveness of her facial expressions, a sign of progress in her emotional development. She extends her emotional awareness to the staff when she acknowledges that their lives are difficult and stressful even if they do not suffer from mental illness . This is also important because if forces her to acknowledge that not even mentally healthy people have it easy all the time. Engagement in reality, as Dr. Fried told her, is not without its own troubles.

Moreover, Deborah discovers that she isn't as dangerous to others as she once thought. She never actually tried to kill her sister. Over the years, she became convinced that she was poisonous to others, so she created a false memory of attempting to murder her sister. Before she started treatment at the hospital, Deborah was convinced that her negative emotions were destructive to others. She did not like Suzy when she first arrived, so Deborah convinced herself that she tried to destroy her sister. However, negative, aggressive emotions are normal part of living, and they don't necessarily translate into harmful behavior toward others.

Chapters 24-29

Summary

Deborah goes home for a five-day visit to a warm welcome, but dealing with her solicitous relatives is exhausting. Suzy cancels an outing with her friends that she was eagerly anticipating, causing Deborah to feel guilt and embarrassment. She wonders if giving up Yr for Earth is a fair trade. The Yr of early days, before the Censor, was a beautiful haven. Only the recent Yr, full of punishment and suffering, is horrible. Esther eagerly shows Deborah's sketches to admiring relatives, setting off an argument between her and Suzy later that night. Suzy feels neglected because she never receives such adulation, but Esther explains that it

would be bragging to praise her. Praising Deborah is a plea for others to excuse her illness.

When she returns to the hospital, Deborah meets a new patient, Carmen, the daughter of a multimillionaire. Later, on a lark, she and Carla escape the hospital to walk along the road at night. When they return, they are placed in seclusion. In the morning, Dr. Halle asks her what the escape was all about. Deborah explains that she has always been clumsy, so she admires people who are atumai, an Yri word for people who are never ever clumsy. Last night, she and Carla were briefly atumai, an exhilarating experience. Dr. Halle is pleased that they shared a fun experience, so he does not punish them by revoking some of their privileges. They learn soon thereafter that Carmen's father took her out of the hospital. Deborah suddenly realizes that her parents allowed her to stay for a long time even when she showed no signs of improvement. Later, she learns that Carmen committed suicide after she left the hospital. Deborah frightens the other patients when she states that Carmen could have made it if she had stayed. Later, Carla tells her that she is going to try living on the outside again.

Deborah requests that she be allowed to live in the nearby town. Deborah takes a room from Mrs. King, an elderly landlady who has not lived in the town long enough to acquire the fear and contempt that most of the long-time residents feel toward out-patients from the hospital. Deborah partakes in the social life of the town, but everyone treats her with a politeness that separates her firmly from them, so she takes comfort in the laughing, humorous gods of Yr. She remembers that she had happy moments in the past that were buried over by the gloom and unhappiness of her illness. She finally admits that she created Yr and its gods herself, but she still fears that they might somehow be real. She wishes she could dismiss them whenever she wanted. Dr. Fried points out that Yr became beautiful and welcoming again when she began to fight its tyranny. Meanwhile, Deborah realizes that Carla is jealous of her artistic outlet.

Deborah realizes that she cannot get a job without a high school diploma. However, she does not want to attend the local high school where her classmates will be three years younger than she. When a social worker suggests that she take classes in preparation for the GED examinations, Deborah suffers another psychotic episode. She is terrified that Yr no longer has its old logic now that she has begun to accept the laws of Earth. Nevertheless, she chooses to take the GED classes and begin building a life on Earth's terms. She perseveres with her studies and passes the GED exam with a score high enough to gain admittance into college if she wants to go. She calls to give her parents the good news, but their pitiful pride in her accomplishment saddens her. Walking back to the hospital, Deborah is

stricken with fear and hopelessness that she will never be able to live like average people, that the wall between her and them will always be there. She suffers another psychotic episode, but when she returns to consciousness, she opens her school textbooks and tells the gods of Yr that she is going to fight for her place on Earth despite their attempts to hold her back.

Commentary

After Carmen's unfortunate suicide, Deborah finally recognizes the value of her family's sacrifices for her. Despite the anguish that her prolonged treatment has caused them, they never removed her from the hospital. Despite their doubts and frustrations with her slow progress, they never stopped her treatment. Their faith, love, and trust gave them the strength to endure the uncertainty and the setbacks so that she could have the means to become free of her illness.

Deborah's decision to try life as an outpatient is a significant change in her life. She faces the prejudices and fears of a town that has long heard lurid tales of depravity about the patients at the mental hospital. She endures the polite but rigid isolation imposed on her by the residents while pursuing a GED and continuing her treatment with Dr. Fried. The stakes of her struggle with her illness are nothing more and nothing less than the ability to control and manage her own life. Meanwhile, Deborah is also capable of taking pleasure in real world, as her midnight escape from the hospital with Carla indicates.

Although Deborah is plagued with sadness and doubt because she must fight so hard for the small achievements that others take for granted, she doesn't give up. In the last chapter, she suffers another psychotic episode and has to spend a night in the hospital. Nevertheless, she resolves to continue fighting, giving up her allegiance to Yr. Although her journey to recovery is not yet finished, the novel ends on the hopeful suggestion that she will eventually be healthy.

Analysis

Joanne Greenberg wrote I Never Promised You a Rose Garden to refute the simultaneously romanticized and stigmatized status of mental illness. In the late 1960s, reactions to mental illness generally fell between two polarized attitudes. One, popular with the counterculture generation, romanticized mental illness as an altered state of consciousness that was rich in artistic, creative inspiration. The protagonist of this myth was the tortured artist who poured out his or her soul in

writing or art between periods of mental breakdown; Sylvia Plath, Vincent Van Gogh, and Virginia Woolf are only a few such individuals whose artistry is practically inseparable from the idealized myths of their mental instability. Often their periods of mental breakdown were a source of inspiration, but before one romanticizes their mental illnesses, it necessary to remember that all three committed suicide.

On the other end of the spectrum, mental illness was stigmatized as a weakness or fatal flaw on the part of the sufferer. Even today, many uninformed people regard mental illness as a stigmatized condition, shrouded in shameful secrecy and negative stereotypes, to be described with frightening or belittling euphemisms. In the late 1960s, when Greenberg's novel was published, mental illness was even more misunderstood and feared. The reading public had absorbed centuries of inaccurate information about mental illness, all based on prejudice, ignorance, and fear.

Greenberg portrays the problem of mental illness from different perspectives. She details Jacob and Esther Blau's struggle with self-doubt, blame, and the stigma of their daughter's sickness. The novel also portrays the difficult, stressful work required of the medical professionals and the staff who work with mentally ill patients. However, most importantly, Greenberg portrays the experience of mental illness from the patient's point of view. Struggling with mental illness is not glamorous or easy. The road to recovery is lined with setbacks, doubt, and fear. It takes a great deal of courage and perseverance on Deborah's part to face her illness and fight it through treatment.

The doctor's most important tool is empathy, as Clara Fried demonstrates. Treating the mentally ill requires a combination of emotional sensitivity, strength, and intuition in addition to good clinical training. The relationship between the patient and doctor is a key part of treating mental illness, but a good relationship depends on illusory qualities than cannot be defined or acquired in advance. Dr. Fried acknowledges the value of Deborah's imaginary kingdom as a kind of map to Deborah's illness. Over the course of three years, she guides Deborah through a re-interpretation of Yr and its logic. In this way, she helps Deborah cope with the often confusing, often irrational laws of the real world. When Dr. Royson takes over Deborah's case, his approach is to prove to Deborah that Yr is her own creation. His approach does not work with Deborah, although it might with a different patient.

Some of the information in I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is outdated. In recent years, schizophrenia has come to be regarded as a problem in brain

development, a physiological condition. Although no one knows exactly what "causes" it, studies indicate that a complex combination of genetics and environmental factors contribute to the development of the condition. The novel implies that Deborah's treatment is composed mostly of therapy. It is unlikely that therapy without the use of psychiatric drugs is sufficient to treat schizophrenia. Still, these new findings certainly do not invalidate the importance of empathy and understanding in the treatment of schizophrenia. Greenberg's desire to garner sympathy, respect, and understanding for sufferers of mental illness is still a valid concern, and her novel remains valuable as a sympathetic portrayal of mental illness.