Elizabeth Ford

From the Chief of Psychiatry for Correctional Health Services in New York City comes a revelatory and deeply compassionate memoir that takes readers inside Bellevue Hospital’s forensic psychiatry unit and brings to life the world—the system, the staff, and the haunting cases—that shaped one young psychiatrist as she learned about respect, survival and our shared humanity. Elizabeth Ford went through medical school unsure of where she belonged. It wasn’t until she did her psychiatry rotation that she found her calling—to care for one of the most vulnerable populations of mentally ill people, the inmates of New York City's jails, including Rikers Island, who are so sick that they are sent to the Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward for care. These men were broken, without resources or support, and very ill. They could be violent, unpredictable, but they could also be funny and tender and needy. Mostly, they were human and they awakened in Ford a boundless empathy. Her patients made her a great doctor and a better person. While Ford was a psychiatrist at Bellevue she became a wife and a mother. In her book she shares her struggles to balance her personal and professional lives, to care for her children and her patients, and to maintain the empathy that is essential to her practice—all in the face of a complex institution, an exhausting workload, and the deeply emotionally taxing nature of her work. Ford brings humor, grace, and humanity to the lives of the patients in her care and in beautifully rendered prose illuminates the inner workings (and failings) of our mental health and criminal justice systems.

Heartbreak and Hope on the Bellevue Hospital Psychiatric Prison Ward

Sometimes Amazing Things Happen

Daniela Drake

Why does society applaud a girl who falls for a guy's "big blue eyes" yet denounces one who chooses a man with a "big green bankroll"? After all, isn't earning power more a reflection of a man's values and character? Smart Girls Marry Money challenges the ideals and assumptions women have blindly accepted about love and marriage -- and shows how they've done so at their own economic peril. In this brazen manifesto, authors Elizabeth Ford and Daniela Drake use cold hard facts, real science, and true stories to present a compelling case for why mercenary marriages make the most sense for future happiness. Smart Girls taps into a growing, collective suspicion that the post-feminist world isn't all it's cracked up to be. Female "empowerment" has women working hard to look sexier than ever, while carrying more than their fair share financially. Yet sadly, statistics prove that: not only do women continue to earn far less than their male counterparts, they also suffer far more economically when marriages fail. Ford and Drake think it's high time that women get their heads out of the clouds and start caring about their own security -- the kind that can be measured in dollars and common sense. With an irreverent, straight-talk tone, the authors serve up a sound case and intriguing strategy for how women can truly "have it all." Sure to spark conversation and controversy, Smart Girls Marry Money will ultimately empower women with a new way to take control of both their economic and romantic lives.

How Women Have Been Duped Into the Romantic Dream--And How They're Paying For It

Smart Girls Marry Money

This irreverent manifesto sparked both conversation and controversy when it made its debut as a hardcover in 2009. From essays in The Wall Street Journal to debates in the blogosphere, women weighed in on the book's provocative message, which ultimately challenges the ideals and assumptions we've blindly accepted about love and marriage. Smart Girls Marry Money is a hard-hitting indictment on society (peppered with plenty of wry observations) that empowers women with a new way to take control of their economic and romantic lives. Now in a paperback edition, there will be more “Smart Girls” who will join in on the heated debate on how we can make healthier (and wealthier!) marriages.

How Women Are Getting Shafted by their Romantic Expectations--and What They Can Do About It

In the history of cinema, many film genres have gained and lost popularity with the changing times, but one has maintained its supreme reign—the royal biopic. In Royal Portraits in Hollywood: Filming the Lives of Queens, authors Elizabeth A. Ford and Deborah C. Mitchell follow the lives of historical queens as depicted on film from the 1930s to the present. Women as diverse as Catherine the Great, Cleopatra, Mary Stuart, and Marie Antoinette have been represented on the silver screen, dominating the masculine world of politics while maintaining their femininity. During the golden age of American film, these roles gave Hollywood a means of portraying powerful women without threatening the patriarchal social order. Depictions of the lives of queens have progressed from idealized and romanticized portraits to the more personal, complex portrayals of modern Hollywood. By walking the line between fact and fiction, these royal portraits of queens reveal just as much our society as they do about the historical periods they represent. Audiences are drawn to the theaters year after year because the lives of queens promise good drama and attract some of the most talented actresses. The success of Hollywood’s leading ladies in playing queens further solidifies the link between Hollywood royalty and authentic royalty. Actresses such as Bette Davis, Judy Dench, Helen Mirren, Elizabeth Taylor, and Greta Garbo have done more than influence the way we imagine historical queens—they also have changed how we perceive women in powerful positions today. Royal Portraits in Hollywood analyzes seventy-five years of films about queens as well as the lives of the actresses who starred in them. Combining biographical sketches and excerpts from letters and journals, Ford and Mitchell show how filmmaking and our society’s perceptions of gender have changed. The authors compare Hollywood’s on-screen portrayals to the historical records, often drawing connections to the actresses’ careers and personal lives. This comprehensive analysis provides a more complete picture of the lives that take place behind the thrones—both real and fictional. The spectacle of a woman dressed in the full regalia of power remains a compelling image in our society. Hollywood actresses and the queens they portray are women who wield power, and by examining the lives of these women, the authors reveal not only society’s perceptions about female power but also how those perceptions continue to evolve.

Filming the Lives of Queens

Royal Portraits in Hollywood

This irreverent manifesto sparked both conversation and controversy when it made its debut as a hardcover in 2009. From essays in The Wall Street Journal to debates in the blogosphere, women weighed in on the book's provocative message, which ultimately challenges the ideals and assumptions we've blindly accepted about love and marriage. Smart Girls Marry Money is a hard-hitting indictment on society (peppered with plenty of wry observations) that empowers women with a new way to take control of their economic and romantic lives. Now in a paperback edition, there will be more ''Smart Girls'' who will join in on the heated debate on how we can make healthier (and wealthier!) marriages.

Elizabeth Ford

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