Poems from the Madhouse: Edition 2

Sandy Jeffs

Jan 2003 · Spinifex Press

About this ebook

An unflinching, luminous poetry collection exploring schizophrenia, institutional life, and the enduring resilience of the human mind.

Sandy Jeffs invites readers directly into the turbulent inner world of psychosis and recovery in Poems from the Madhouse. Written from lived experience following hospitalizations for schizophrenia, these verses capture the terror of auditory hallucinations, the cold isolation of locked psychiatric wards, and the bittersweet relief found in moments of human kindness.

With searing honesty and sharp wit, this collection breaks down the stigma surrounding mental illness while illuminating:

• The daily reality of navigating delusions, uninvited voices, and fractured perception.
• The atmosphere of asylum wards, from clinical interactions to shared bonds among patients.
• A call for empathy, understanding, and compassion for psychiatric survivors.

This powerful volume offers essential insight for general readers, students, poetry lovers, and mental health advocates.

About the author

Sandy Jeffs is an author born in Ballarat and has a BA from La Trobe University. She has lived with schizophrenia and all its moods for over thirty years. She is a community educator who speaks to schools, universities and community groups about what it¿s like to live with a mental illness. She is the author of the bestselling Poems from the Madhouse (1993; reprinted 2000, 2001), Loose Kangaroos (co-author, 1998), Blood Relations (2000), Confessions of a Midweek Lady: Tall Tennis Tales (2001), and The Wings of Angels: A memoir of madness (2004), and her autobiography, Flying with Paper Wings: Reflections on Living With Madness (2009).