ABSTRACT
This chapter explores women's first-person experiences with the mental health establishment. An icon of feminist writing, the 1892 story symbolizes affirmation and validation for the female experience regarding mental health and therapy. The time has come for her mother to have custodial care. She wants very much to live near me at the Hebrew Home for the Aged. It is long after the snake pit years. My father is dead. My mother has been in a chronic care facility, with time out when she can cope, because she can no longer care for herself during depressive episodes. she wonders how this little sparrow of a man, this diminutive, disheveled guy who seems so intimidated by her strength and sound persona, could have had so much power over her during those terrifying days when he didn't seem to see her or hear her pain.
