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Jay Neugeboren wrote a book called Imagining Robert about his brother Robert who lives with schizophrenia and who has been institutionalized for most of his life. On June 11th, Mt Sinai Hospital held a screening of Imagining Robert the documentary in their Goldwurm Auditorium.

According to the documentary, in an attempt to liberate his brother, in his fifties at this time, from the locked wards of state institutions, Mr. Neugeboren wrote letters to powerful state officials imploring their assistance. Using his talented writing abilities, Mr. Neugeboren created a wave of public attention to the matter of his brother, everything ultimately culminating with the publishing of his powerful book. After the publishing, mental health providers from many different sites were offering Robert improved housing and treatment in the community to help him fit back into the community. It causes one to wonder, if his brother had not intervened, would Robert have wasted away in institutions for the rest of his life?

Robert has a lot to offer his fellow human beings. His illness does not prevent him from developing meaningful relationships with people who care for him. Growing up, Robert had a love and talent for many things including music, acting, art, and dancing. He won a scholarship to college. But his parents had an uneasy relationship, with his father mostly out of work and his mother working two jobs to support the family.

Robert suffered his first break as he neared his 19th birthday. Since then, he has received every diagnosis conceivable and has been shuffled from institution to institution where he was treated under lock and key until his brother liberated him and found a good place for him to live in the community with trained staff to care for him.

Mr. Neugeboren and his brother Robert were present after the film to answer questions. An audience member put it like this: "The greatest stigma comes from the system itself. The mentally ill are segregated from everyone else. Do people with diabetes get segregated together [in the same manner]?" One man happily revealed he grew up on the same street as the Neugeborens. Unfortunately, he had a sister with a mental illness who died in an institution. He commended Mr. Neugeboren for being such a good brother.