In Within Our Reach, former first lady Rosalynn Carter and coauthor Susan Golant render an insightful, unsparing assessment of the state of mental health. Mrs. Carter has been deeply invested in this issue since her husband’s gubernatorial campaign when she saw firsthand the horrific, dehumanizing treatment of people with mental illnesses.
Using stories from her 35 years of advocacy to springboard into a discussion of the larger issues
at hand, Carter crafts an intimate and powerful account of a subject previously shrouded in stigma and shadow, surveying the dimensions of an issue that has affected us all in one way or another. She describes a system that continues to fail those in need, even though recent scientific breakthroughs in the origins of and treatments for mental illnesses have potential to help most people lead more normal lives.
Within Our Reach is a seminal, searing, and ultimately optimistic look at how far we’ve come since Carter’s days on the campaign trail and how far we have yet to go.
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