Norah Vincent's bestseller, Self-Made Man, chronicled the eighteen months she lived disguised as a man, leaving her in severe depression and with little choice but to commit herself into a mental institution. Out of this experience comes Voluntary Madness, in which she voluntarily commits herself to three facilities up and down the socio-economic ladder. In this venture, Vincent unexpectedly finds her own path through suffering and despair to a new understanding of her own mental map and a giant stride toward health and happiness.