A review by serendipitysbooks
The Woman They Could Not Silence: The Timeless Story of an Outspoken Woman and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

 
The Woman They Could Not Silence is a book that was almost guaranteed to raise my blood pressure given that it highlights the abuse of patriarchal power against women, and also the abuses suffered by mental health patients. It focuses on Elizabeth Packard who, in 1860, was admitted to an insane asylum by her husband and kept there for three years by the controlling, unethical Dr. McFarland, the asylum superintendent. Packard was not insane - she just dared to think independently, refused to bow to her husband’s commands and questioned the doctor’s practice. She was not the only perfectly sane woman held in such asylums, virtually powerless to gain their own release. The conditions and treatment within the institution were often barbaric with little care, kindness, or meaningful treatment for those with actual mental health issues. Instead they were often abused physically and emotionally. This book recounts the life of Elizabeth Packard, the events leading to her being committed, her experiences in the asylum, her efforts to gain her freedom, and then her tireless work to ensure better treatment and protection for mental health patients, to ensure that women could no longer be wrongfully confined, and for women’s rights generally.

The entitlement, audacity and amorality of some of the men in this book was just mind blowing. Like I said bad for my blood pressure. I did find the tone a little strident at times and I felt it a overly long and repetitive in places. However, this book does cover important topics that we should not forget. And lest we think the issue of men trying to control and belittle women by questioning their sanity the postscript includes many recent examples including then President Trump’s attacks on Nancy Pelosi which bore an uncanny resemblance to McFarland’s attacks of Packard. 
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