Unearthing the Ghosts argues for an end to well-meaning abuses in the name of “treating” mental illness and a quest to nurture and protect mental health.
In Unearthing the Ghosts, Linda Mary Wagner seeks to solve the mystery of how she wound up on anti-psychotic drugs in a psychiatric ward before seeing the doctor who put her there. A healthy “hippie” at age 17, Wagner is assumed mentally ill by her Depression-era parents who are puzzled by the massive social changes in American society in the 1960s. Through this memoir, she discovers the forces that coalesced into her doctor’s misdiagnosis and mistreatment and shares how she recovered from coming-of-age trauma. Within this highly personal story, Wagner weaves social history based on research that uncovers other mysteries, both solved and unsolved.
" This memoir was heartbreaking, enlightening and at the same time filled me with rage. Betrayed by the people who were there to protect her: parents, teachers, doctors. Linda's strength and courage are evident. Her writing is a gift to all of us."
Linda Mary Wagner spent more than a dozen years as an independent journalist, primarily for National Public Radio and its member stations in Buffalo and Chicago. She later worked as a communications specialist for The Brooklyn Historical Society, Consumers Union, and Associated Press. While earning her Masters in Public Administration from Columbia University, she forged a third career in nonprofit leadership and management, from which she retired in 2020. Currently living with her husband in Albany, New York, Ms. Wagner is the mother of a son and daughter who have graced her with a total of five grandchildren.
Unearthing the Ghosts: A Mystery Memoir is her first book.
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My new memoir, Rear-View Reflections on Radical Change, is now available as an e-book and paperback!
