The Snake Pit

The story of a girl who lost her mind - and found it. A brilliant and uncompromising picture of life in a mental hospital. Virginia Cunningham had moved with her husband from the security of a mid-western town to New York City. She had worked and played too hard and worried too much. One day she simply blacked out, and for months afterwards was only at intervals conscious of who and where she was. It is these periods of comparative sanity that she recalls in this book; periods which gradually grew more frequent, until at last she was discharged as cured. There were times when the iron discipline, the dreaded 'tubs' and shock therapy, the antics of the inmates (including herself), and the other horrors of a nightmare world were almost beyond endurance. And there were times when Juniper Hill was a blessed refuge from a life too complex for a sick mind to face. "The Snake Pit" might have been a horror story, but it is told with such warmth and sympathy and touches of humour, that the reader surrenders to its spell, rejoices with Virginia when she improves, grows despondent at her relapses and shares in the final joy of her release. How much of this was fact and how much fantasy? Virginia Cunningham's mind was on vacation and "The Snake Pit" tells what she remembered of Juniper Hill when she had recovered sufficiently to leave it. It is a stark human experience told in novel form.