5150 - The One Who Flew Into the Cuckoo's Nest

New expanded version and professionally edited. This story is mainly about a dramatic inpatient psychiatric hospitalization. 5150 is the California code for a psychiatric hold. Pat Risser: "A true story about a woman caught in a life or death struggle with a psychiatrist whose ego feels he must defeat her at all costs. The psychiatrist forgets all about healing and enters into combat with the patient -- it's his will versus hers. The battle scenes are vividly captured through Kathi's eyes as well as through the chart notes that reveal the terrifying specter of the thoughts of the staff as they try to force their will upon Kathi." Dr. Sam Vaknin writes: This time it's a winner: taut, tense prose; a plot as captivating as any thriller's; a real-life story that reads like a nightmare and that ends in personal redemption. Couched in a lean and muscular text, all the important themes are here: self-discovery, one against the many, iconoclastic rebel faces down the system, justice for all, mental illness as a mechanism for social coercion. What a ride! What a treat! Brilliant. The reason I expanded this book was because one of the feedback reviews indicated he wanted to see more of the advocacy that was accomplished. At the time of the first writing many of the events in the expanded version had not yet occurred. 5150 is a true story about personal journey in the following domains: Psychiatric Hospital(s), Dissociative Identity Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Schizoaffective Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, and Transsexualism. First time a book is published that resonates with the psychiatric hospital notes. Paula Minegar: This book goes to a different level, I haven't read anything like it. I felt a different emotion with every turn of the page. When I could put it down, I recapped the previous pages over and over in my mind. I wish I had a tenth of the strength this author has. A great read, a shocking education.