Shelter Blues Sanity and Selfhood Among the Homeless Robert R.
Desjarlais Winner of the 1999 Victor Turner Prize of the Society
for Humanistic Anthropology "Beautifully crafted, powerfully
illustrated with conversation, theoretically important, and almost
unique as an ethnography."--Arthur Kleinman, Harvard University
Desjarlais shows us not anonymous faces of the homeless but real
people. While it is estimated that 25 percent or more of America's
homeless are mentally ill, their lives are largely unknown to us.
What must life be like for those who, in addition to living on the
street, hear voices, suffer paranoid delusions, or have trouble
thinking clearly or talking to others. "Shelter Blues" is an
innovative portrait of people residing in Boston's Station Street
Shelter. It examines the everyday lives of more than 40 homeless
men and women, both white and African-American, ranging in age from
early 20s to mid-60s. Based on a sixteen-month study, it draws
readers into the personal worlds of these individuals and, by
addressing the intimacies of homelessness, illness, and abjection,
picks up where most scholarship and journalism stops. Robert
Desjarlais works against the grain of media representations of
homelessness by showing us not anonymous stereotypes but
individuals. He draws on conversations as well as observations,
talking with and listening to shelter residents to understand how
they relate to their environment, to one another, and to those
entrusted with their care. His book considers their lives in terms
of a complex range of forces and helps us comprehend the linkages
between culture, illness, personhood, and political agency on the
margins of contemporary American society. "Shelter Blues" is unlike
anything else ever written about homelessness. It challenges social
scientists and mental health professionals to rethink their
approaches to human subjectivity and helps us all to better
understand one of the most pressing problems of our time. Robert
Desjarlais teaches anthropology at Sarah Lawrence College and is
the author of "Body and Emotion: The Aesthetics of Illness and
Healing in the Nepal Himalayas," also published by Penn.
Contemporary Ethnography 1997 320 pages 6 x 9 7 illus ISBN
978-0-8122-1622-6 Paper $27.50s 18.00 World Rights Anthropology,
Sociology, Psychology Short copy: "Beautifully crafted, powerfully
illustrated with conversation, theoretically important, and almost
unique as an ethnography."--Arthur Kleinman, Harvard University
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