This City Is Killing Me: Community Trauma and Toxic Stress in Urban America (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781948742474)

Jonathan Foiles weaves together psychology and public policy, exploring the trauma underlying urbanization in a book Kirkus Reviews calls an "urgent call for reform."

When Jonathan Foiles was a graduate student in social work, he had to choose between specializing in either mental health or public policy. But once he began working, he found it impossible to tell the two apart. As he counseled poor patients from Chicago's South and West Sides, he realized individual therapy couldn't account for all the ways unemployment, poverty, lack of affordable housing, and other policy decisions impacted the well-being of both individuals and communities.

Through a series of beautifully written and accessible case studies, Foiles lets us in on the stories of individual poor Chicagoans. He teaches us how he makes diagnoses, explains how therapists before him would analyze his patients, and teaches us about the profound ways that policy decisions contribute to individual suffering.

A remarkable, unique work of medical writing that serves as a call to action, this report by an experienced mental health professional is a must-read for anyone interested in the overlaps between mental health, public policy, and urbanization.

About the Author
Jonathan Foiles, LSCW, is a therapist at an urban community mental health clinic in Chicago. He received his A.M. from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and is a member of the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis. His writing has appeared in Slate and Belt Magazine.