I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is a semi-autobiographical account of Joanne Greenberg’s experience with mental illness. This book was originally published in 1964 under the pseudonym Hannah Green in order to protect her family from the stigma that often accompanies a psychiatric diagnosis. When Greenberg’s family learned more about her history with mental illness, she allowed the book to be reprinted using her real name. In addition to the book making people aware of the stigma that comes with mental illness Greenberg wrote the book to give a realistic portrayal of the experience of mental illness.
Deborah Blau is an adolescent who has been sent to a mental hospital, by her parents to be treated for schizophrenia after attempting to commit suicide. The book follows Deborah through the course of her stay at the hospital, flashing back to Deborah’s childhood while taking the reader to the world of Yr. Yr is a world of Deborah’s own creation that previously provided her with comfort and sanctuary, but at the time of her hospitalization it had begun turning into a frightening and condemning place for Deborah. Throughout the course of the story Deborah bounces between the “human world” and Yr unable to incorporate or choose between the two worlds.
The character of Deborah is very well developed. The reader will feel that they know her and that they are traveling between the two worlds with her. Another character is Dr. Fried, Deborah’s psychiatrist. The book examines their work together throughout the course of Deborah’s hospitalization. The character Dr. Fried was based on Joanne Greenberg’s treating psychiatrist at Chestnut Lodge Sanitarium in Rockville, Maryland, Dr. Frieda Fromm-Reichmann. There is a wonderful therapeutic relationship existing between Deborah and Dr. Fried, though not without some tensions. At one point Deborah refers to Dr. Fried by stating, “you old mental garbage collector”. Esther and Jacob Blau, Deborah’s parents, are also important characters in the story; giving the reader some insight into the difficulties they are experiencing in dealing with Deborah’s mental illness. In addition, the difficulties that Deborah’s sister Suzy is facing are also discussed in the book. Though it is helpful in being introduced to these characters to better understand Deborah, they are not as well developed as Deborah’s character is and the reader will leave not really knowing these characters, but still have some idea of how they are feeling.
There are a number of other characters in the book that Deborah meets during the course of her hospitalization. One such character is Carla, who plays a very important role, as she is Deborah’s first friend. The interactions between Deborah and Carla are moving. Though at times Deborah struggles with her friendship, as it is of the human world, she seems to value the connection that the two of them share. There is a wonderful section of the book when Deborah and Carla run from the hospital and share a taste of freedom and choice, even just for a little while. A particularly poignant and beneficial moment shared between Carla and Deborah was when Deborah was angry and lashed out at Carla, and Carla did not lash back at Deborah. “You could of hurt me- and you didn’t” Deborah stated. This incident remained with Deborah as she learned to make more connections with the world.
Many of the other women that Deborah encounters in the hospital play an important role in helping Deborah gain some insight into the world and into herself. In addition, there are a number of characters that are the staff at the hospital. Deborah has a number of interactions with these characters, some of which end up having mental health problems themselves. It is very interesting to see the patients disdain for those staff that are on the verge of “crazy” and are only distinguished from the patients by the keys that they hold. It is very telling that the staff member who treats Deborah with respect, McPherson, is a staff member with whom interactions are beneficial and helpful to Deborah’s recovery. It is interesting how Deborah paved the road to recovery by benefiting from interactions not only through the work with her psychiatrist, but from a respectful and caring staff member and the other patients as well.
That fact is a telling theme throughout the course of the book. This book does not discuss medication or electroshock therapy and mental illness is not discussed in terms of a medical model. It is through talking and interactions with others, be they professionals or not, that Deborah makes progress, not through the use of any specific treatment. However, the way that Dr. Fried chooses to work with Deborah allows for her to benefit from all her interactions. Had Dr. Fried chose a medical model to work from, then the interactions with others may not of been of consequence to Deborah, as she may have been too medicated to engage with others. However, the way that Dr. Fried viewed Deborah’s illness allowed for connections with others to be helpful in her recovery. The existence of the world Yr was viewed as a mechanism for coping and insight and choice seem to be the way for Deborah to reconnect with the human world. This is demonstrated by an interesting exchange between Deborah and Dr. Fried:
Dr. Fried: We will go until we see it all. When it is over, you can still can still choose Yr if you really wish it. It is only the choice which I wish to give you; your own true and conscious choice.
Deborah: I could still be crazy if I wanted to?
Dr. Fried: Crazy as a fruitcake…if you wanted to. …
Deborah: And if I should want it-if I should need it…afterward…
Dr. Fried: You have no experience to know what mental health is, but I don’t think that you will need or want to have bats in the steeple. Still, the answer is yes. If you need it or want it afterward, all your choices will still be there.
Deborah had to find reasons to connect with the world and to choose to leave Yr behind. Therefore, finding interactions with others in reality proved to be helpful in Deborah choosing to live in the human world.
The passage also demonstrates an interesting perspective, not often seen in psychiatry. The doctor is not telling Deborah the way that she needs to live her life. Rather she is showing Deborah respect and telling her that she can choose to live in any manner that she wishes. If she still feels that she needs the world Yr, no one will take that away. Only Deborah can choose to leave that world behind. In essence, Deborah is the only one to choose whether or not she goes into recovery from her mental illness. However, though this may sound simplistic, the book in no way minimizes the difficulty of such choices. As Deborah stated about the human world, “your spatial laws are okay, but God-watch out for the choices you give us!” (p.145).
The title of the book comes from this choice that Deborah will have to make. There had been an instance in the hospital where a guard had beaten a patient and Deborah was unable to do anything about it. She was feeling frustrated, and wondering what good choosing to live in reality would do when there was such injustice in the world.
“What good is your reality, when justice fails and dishonesty is glossed over and the ones who keep faith suffer…What good is your reality then?”
Dr. Fried responds to this challenge with a passage that makes for the title of the book. Not only is this passage a commentary on society as a whole, it demonstrates the role that a mental health professional should take:
“Look here, I never promised you a rose garden. I never promised you perfect justice… and I never promised you peace or happiness. My help is so that you can be free to fight for all these things. The only reality I offer is challenge, and being well is being free to accept it or not at whatever level you are capable. I never promise lies, and the rose-garden world of perfection is a lie.”
There are many mental health professionals who may limit the power of the people they are working with. This passage points out that a psychiatrist or psychologist or any type of mental health worker does not have the ability to give justice, peace or happiness to their clients. Nor should they promise that if the client is recovered from their mental illness that the world will be wonderful. Their job is to challenge the patient and help them find the ability to choose the type of life they want to live for themselves. If the life they choose is not the one that professionals may choose for them, the relationship may still have been successful because the person was able to make a choice.
This book also addresses the lack of respect that people with mental illnesses often suffer. At one point Deborah sprained her ankle and had to be taken to a medical hospital. During her visit at the hospital people kept speaking to the aides with her as if she wasn’t there. “Is that the mental patient in there?” and “Are they violent?” Later she discussed her trip with Dr. Fried, joking that she wished she had been in a straightjacket and that she hadn’t even thought “about frothing at the mouth” until after she left. Dr. Fried noted that Deborah was hurt by the incident and commented on the incident:
“It goes very slowly, this prejudice,” she said, “but it is getting better. I remember how much worse it was before the Second War and really how much worse before the First. Be patient about this. Because you know so much more about mental illness than they do- you are freer to be understanding and forgiving.”
While this is a lovely speech, it is sad to note that almost forty years after this book was published, this prejudice still has not become much better.
There has been some criticism of the book which is based on comparisons to case studies published by Dr. Fromm-Reichmann about her work with Joanne Greenberg. Jeffrey Berman suggests that Greenberg portrayed Deborah too much as an innocent and a victim in the book whereas if she had included some of the additional information that Dr. Fromm-Reichmann referred to, Deborah would have been a more interesting character. However, I think that it is important to remember that this book was written by Greenberg based in part on her experiences. The narrative was mainly from the point of view of Deborah and what Greenberg chose to include was what she felt was important and relevant to her experience and recovery. It will be interesting to read Dr. Fromm-Reichmann’s published case notes and see another perspective on the work that the two did together.
I Never Promised You A Rose Garden is a well-written and interesting book. This book will appeal to a wide audience; both adolescents and mental health professionals will find something of value in it. There are many other interesting dynamics explored in this book in addition to the ones that I have mentioned. The strength of this book lies in the author’s ability to make the reader feel that they were experiencing what Deborah experienced both in the hospital and in Yr. In addition, the reader will really be able to feel the struggle that Deborah feels between the two worlds and the difficulty in choosing to leave one of these worlds behind. In addition, knowing that this book is based on someone’s life makes reading it an even more poignant experience. The author was able to give people some idea what it may feel like to have a mental illness while not only pointing out the negatives, but also showing how the mental illness helped Deborah for a while. Greenberg also included some commentary on the stigma that a person with a mental illness could face. Though there has been some change in the mental health field since the book was published in 1964, not so much has changed that the messages in this book are not still of value.
