BOOK REVIEW - Stolen: A Memoir
by Fran Hauser
Guest Editor
Trigger warning: This article includes references to child abuse.
By most definitions, Elizabeth Gilpin's childhood was peppered with joyful successes, from her academic honors to her star athlete status at school. But alongside these achievements, Elizabeth suffered from undiagnosed depression, which led her to abuse alcohol, skip practices, and lie to her parents.
To address this, Elizabeth's parents enrolled her into a behavioral modification program. Hired professionals abducted 15 year old Elizabeth in the middle of the night, kidnapping her from her bed and delivering her to a camp deep in the woods of Appalachia. For three months, Elizabeth was subject to unfathomable emotional abuse and physical pain, which she describes in her memoir. She endured such atrocities as the camp staff forcing her to eat her own vomit and sleep outside for days in torrential rain storms.
Upon "graduation" Elizabeth was transferred from the wilderness program to Carlbrook, a boarding school in Southern Virginia. There, the curriculum revolved around a perverse form of group therapy based on the Synanon cult. Staff at Carlbrook forced students to psychologically abuse and humiliate their peers. Elizabeth remained trapped until she was 17, meaning she endured two years of unbelievable physical, emotional and psychological abuse -- all as "treatment" for her undiagnosed depression.
While reading Stolen, some parts were so unbelievable that I had to remind myself that it was a memoir. I kept asking myself, “how could this happen?” I now realize that is a part of the book's purpose: to shed light on issues like "behavioral modification camps," child abuse, and the deep-rooted misunderstanding of children's mental health.
In interviews, Elizabeth shares that she had been avoiding her own trauma until she started working with a therapist and had to confront her complex, prolonged history of child abuse. A component of her therapy included sharing her story with the world: an experience both painstaking and cathartic. It took her nearly seven years to do research for Stolen, and she wrote most of it during quarantine.
Elizabeth's larger mission in writing Stolen is to expose therapeutic boarding schools, as many remain open today, as well as advocate for the kids impacted by these institutions. I appreciate the multi-layered functions of this memoir: on one hand, it is a form of processing, grief, and catharsis, and on another it is a bold consciousness-raising effort on behalf of children like Elizabeth.
For Mental Health Awareness Month, Elizabeth posted on her Instagram account, “I feel very strongly about the way mental health is regularly misdiagnosed and mistreated. As a child I suffered from depression. As a teenager I was held against my will at a so-called “therapeutic” boarding school. I was stripped of my human rights, psychologically abused and humiliated regularly. The misguided adults running the school allowed me to believe something was wrong with me, and I was no longer a bright and innocent girl. It has been a long road getting to a place where I am able to share, absorb and heal. My memoir STOLEN comes out July 20th, and I hope it helps other survivors of mental health mistreatment.”
I can’t imagine how painful it was for Elizabeth to write this book and relive so many of these harrowing experiences. It was a difficult book for me to put down -- while the content is devastating and often challenging to read, it is beautifully written and incredibly impactful. Whatever form it takes, I wanted, and continue to want, a happy ending for Elizabeth Gilpin.
Fran Hauser is a bestselling author, startup investor and champion of women. For more of her book recommendations, follow @fransbookshelf on Instagram.
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