Description

A Memoir of Psychiatry

The New Asylum is a memoir of psychiatry and an exposé of life in a public psychiatric system, spanning five decades and describing sometimes graphically, sometimes ironically, often poignantly, and always honestly, a search for meaning in extraordinary and often incomprehensible circumstances.

From a childhood spent roaming the grounds of the local Mental Hospital, through psychiatric nurse training and on into acute psychiatry and the management of acute inpatient units. Psychosis and medication, seclusion, suicide, and the burden of carers. All are experienced in The New Asylum.

This collection is the third in a series of free-verse poetry anthologies and personal memoirs from Australian author Frank Prem  (Small Town Kid, Devil In The Wind, The New Asylum – a memoir of psychiatry).

this somebody’s boy

and he talks to me
this young man
in a babble of words

I say nothing
he’s too high

a touch of macho
surrounding an elevated mood
racing fast and furied
until he stops

suddenly

dead quiet

and his face starts to move
into creases and crinkles
reshaping while he struggles
his eyes go glassy

and then it’s all sadness
this boy
this somebody’s little boy
is doing it tough

because it’s hard to be a man
all the time

Step Into The New Asylum

Psychiatry was once considered a shameful thing, with family members bundled away and locked up in Mental Asylums. But it is everywhere, in the 21st century. It is in our homes, and across the back fence. It is in the streets doing deals and in our hospital emergency rooms.

Experience an extraordinary five decades long journey through psychiatry with Frank Prem’s The New Asylum.