The mindsets held about people with disabilities, particularly mental disorders, and African Americans permeate our collective culture and drastically influence what is done in the name of “treatment.”  Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum explores these issues as it chronicles the 93-year-old history of Crownsville State Hospital in Maryland, the last standing segregated asylum in our country. Built by the very people who would eventually become incarcerated within its walls, the story of Crownsville traces the legacy of slavery to the treatment of African American people’s bodies and minds in our current mental healthcare system. After reading the book, participants will join SRV Leadership members Barb Dyer, Shonna Stevens, Vicki Hoshower, Katina Atmore, and Matthew Nguyen for a conversation centering on the themes of SRV, such as mindsets, interpersonal identification, and unconsciousness, and how they relate to the historical contents detailed in the book.

The book will be provided to participants upon registration. Prior attendance at a full 32-hour SRV workshop, in-person or online, is necessary to register for this study group.

Register