National Network for Equitable Library Service

Before she became a psychiatric nurse at "The Mental" in the 1950s, Kay Parley was a patient there, as were the father she barely remembered and the grandfather she'd never met. Part memoir, part history, and beautifully written, Inside The Mental offers an episodic journey into the stigma, horror, and redemption that she found within the institution's walls. Now in her nineties, Parley looks back at the emerging use of group therapy, the advent of patients' rights, evolving ethics in psychiatry, and the amazing cast of characters she met there. She also reveals her role in groundbreaking experiments with LSD, pioneered by the world's leading researchers at "The Mental" to treat addiction and mental illness. Now an author and journalist with a weekly syndicated column, Kay Parley was once a patient and psychiatric nurse at the Weyburn Mental Hospital in Saskatchewan. She had her first breakdown while working at the CBC in Toronto.