Eugeen Roosens and Lieve Van de Walle
Foreword by Oliver Sacks MD

Twenty-five years after his first publication on this topic, anthropologist Roosens and Van de Walle, manager of the rehabilitation unit, ‘revisited’ Geel. In contrast with the previous book (Sage Publications 1979), the current study is more encompassing and broader in scope.

The book starts with a historical overview and zooms in on the famous “Gheel Question”. In Chapter II it dwells on the changes that have occurred in the system over the last 25 years. In Chapter III it explains how the psychiatric foster care programme fits in the larger organisation and how the programme is run on a day-to-day basis. In chapters IV and V it draws a well-documented, realistic and graphic picture of life in a foster family at the onset of the 21st century.

According to Dr Sacks, the cases presented in chapter IV “provide a definitive rebuttal of the notion of mental illness as a remorselessly advancing and deteriorating condition and shows how, if there can be an effective integration into family and community life (and, behind this, a safety net of hospital care, professionals, and medication where warranted), even those who would seem to be incurably afflicted can, potentially, live full, dignified, loved and secure lives.”

Last but not least, throughout the book psychiatric foster care is situated within the larger framework of community care. Basically, the book tries to establish the past and future potential of psychiatric foster care as a form of balanced community care and aims at highlighting the value of fostering for the mentally ill with enduring psychiatric disabilities. The award winning DVD ‘Geel’ by Woestijnvis is included in the book.

About the authors

Eugeen E. ROOSENS, Ph.D. (°1934) is Emeritus Ordinary Professor (Anthropology) at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Emeritus Extraordinary Professor at the Université catholique de Louvain. He started his career at Leuven in 1966, after studies at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Ph.D.) and short doctoral study periods at Oxford, Harvard and the Sorbonne. E. Roosens is the author of numerous articles and books. E. Roosens was a visiting professor at Universities in the United States (UC Berkeley, eight times), Canada (Laval and Montreal), and Japan (Nanzan). He was appointed the P.P. Rubens Professor at the University of California at Berkeley for the academic year 1989-1990. He did fieldwork in the Congo (1961-1965), in Quebec (eight periods between 1968 and 1999) and in Geel, Belgium (1971-1975, 1999-2000, 2005-2006). Since 1974 through 1996 he was in charge of the project “The Cultural Identity of Ethnic Minorities”, a long-term fieldwork project of a team of scholars which operated on five continents. E. Roosens held the National Francqui Chair (“Master classes”) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel for the academic year 1996-97.

Lieve Van de Walle (°1963) is a linguist by training. She studied at the Universities of Gent and Antwerp, was awarded a fellowship by the FWO and was research assistant at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (Illinois, US). She obtained a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Antwerp. Having taught English and various communication related subjects at several colleges and universities, she currently works as the manager of the Rehabilitation Programme at the OPZ in Geel.

How to order?

E. Roosens & L. Van de Walle
Geel revisited. After centuries of mental rehabilitation (with DVD)

Cover design: Marina Nys; art work: Maarten Mangelschots
ISBN: 9789044120752
Number of pages: 129
Status: Published – available
Price: € 25,90
Publisher : Garant Uitgevers nv

One can order the book online: http://www.maklu.be/MakluEnGarant/BookDetails.aspx?id=9789044120752