Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-7jkgd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-14T09:36:27.288Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Autobiographies of Former Mental Patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

Robert Sommer  and
Humphry Osmond
Robert Sommer
Affiliation:
The Saskatchewan Hospital, Weyburn, Sask., Canada
Humphry Osmond
Affiliation:
The Saskatchewan Hospital, Weyburn, Sask., Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Many years ago one of us was introduced by a senior colleague to Thomas Hennell's fine book, The Witnesses (23), and so began in a desultory way to collect accounts of their illnesses written by mentally ill people. We have found that many people know a few books of this genre and speak warmly about their usefulness. One gets the impression that these books are unobtainable. In 1956, after reading Hunter's and MacAlpine's (44) translation of the Schreber Memoirs, and later Schizophrenia, 1677 by the same authors, which consists of Haitzman's account of his illness, we realized that these books had played and could play an important part in the development of psychiatric theory. Indeed, the psychoanalytic theory of schizophrenia derives from the Schreber Memoirs and, although Hunter and MacAlpine rebuke Freud for his extremely selective use of those memoirs, they do not suggest that any systematic study of these writings would be valuable. Psychiatrists of many different persuasions have been given to examining a host of historical, literary, and mythical characters from Moses to Popeye the Sailor; but so far we have been unable to find any systematic study of this uniquely valuable body of information provided by the sick themselves.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 106 , Issue 443 , April 1960 , pp. 648 - 662
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1960 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

A. General References

1. Allport, G. W., The Use of Personal Documents in Psychological Research , 1942. Soc. Sci. Res. Council Bull., 49.Google Scholar
2. Caudill, W., et al., “Social structure and interaction processes on a psychiatric ward”, Amer. J. Orthopsychiat., 1952, 22, 314–334.Google Scholar
3. Idem, The Psychiatric Hospital as a Small Society, 1958. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
4. Foreman, P. B., “Buchenwald and modern prisoner-of-war detention policy”, Social Forces, 1959, 37, 289–298.Google Scholar
5. Gillies, H., “Schizophrenia”, J. Ment. Sci., 1950, 96, 346–378.Google Scholar
6. Hebb, D. O., Organization of Behavior, 1949. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
7. Leopold, N., Life plus 99 Years, 1958. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
8. Menninger, K. A., A Guide to Psychiatric Books (2nd rev. ed.), 1956. New York: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
9. Norman, F., Bang to Rights, 1958. London: Secker and Warburg.Google Scholar
10. Szasz, T. S., “Politics and mental health”, Amer. J. Psychiat., 1958, 115, 508–511.Google Scholar

B. Autobiographies of Former Mental Patients Used in the Study

11. Anon., The Philosophy of Insanity, 1947. London: Fireside Press. (Orig. pub. 1860.)Google Scholar
12. Beers, C., A Mind that Found Itself, 1945. (25th Anniv. Edit.). Garden City: Doubleday, Doran. (First edition, 1908.)Google Scholar
13. Boisen, A. T., The Exploration of the Inner World, 1936. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
14. Brown, C., Brainstorm, 1947. New York: Farrar, Rinehart.Google Scholar
15. Brown, H. C., A Mind Mislaid, 1937. New York: E. P. Dutton.Google Scholar
16. Custance, , John, , Wisdom, Madness and Folly, 1951. London: Gollancz.Google Scholar
17. Idem, Adventure into the Unconscious, 1954. London: Christopher Johnson.Google Scholar
18. Dahl, , Robert, , Breakdown, 1959. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
19. David, , Robert, , The Autobiography of David, 1946. London: Victor Gollancz.Google Scholar
20. Graves, A., The Eclipse of a Mind, 1942. New York: Medical Journal Press.Google Scholar
21. Hackett, , Paul, , The Cardboard Giants, 1952. New York: G. P. Putnam.Google Scholar
22. Hales, , Ella, , Like a Lamb, 1958. London: Christopher Johnson.Google Scholar
23. Hennell, T., The Witnesses, 1932. London: Peter Davies.Google Scholar
24. Hillyer, , Jane, , Reluctantly Told, 1931. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
25. Inmate Ward Eight (Woodson, W. W.), Behind the Door of Delusion, 1932. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
26. Jefferson, , Lara, , These are My Sisters, 1947. Tulsa: Vickers Publishing Co.Google Scholar
27. Johnson, D. McI., A Doctor Returns, 1956. London: Christopher Johnson.Google Scholar
28. King, , Marian, , The Recovery of Myself, 1931. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
29. Kerkhoff, J., How Thin the Veil, 1952. New York: Greenberg.Google Scholar
30. Krauch, , Elsa, , A Mind Restored, 1937. New York: G. P. Putnam.Google Scholar
31. McCall, , Lenore, , Between Us and the Dark, 1947. Philadelphia: Lippincott.Google Scholar
32. Maine, H., If a Man be Mad, 1947. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
33. Moore, W. L., The Mind in Chains, 1955. New York: Exposition Press.Google Scholar
34. North 3–1 (Owen, E.), Pick Up the Pieces, 1929. New York: Doubleday, Doran.Google Scholar
35. Ogdon, J. A. H., The Kingdom of the Lost, 1946. London: Victor Gollancz.Google Scholar
36. Peters, F., The World Next Door, 1945. New York: Farrar, Rinehart.Google Scholar
37. Pierce, S. W., and Pierce, J. T., The Layman Looks at Doctors, 1929. New York: Harcourt, Brace.Google Scholar
38. Piersall, J. (with Hirshberg, A.), Fear Strikes Out, 1955. New York: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
39. Pollitt, B. H., A Lawyer's Story, 1955. Florida: Pollitt.Google Scholar
40. Idem, Justice and the Justices, 1954. Florida: College Publishing Co.Google Scholar
41. Roth, , Lillian, , I'll Cry Tomorrow, 1954. New York: Frederick Fell.Google Scholar
42. Seabrook, , William, , Asylum, 1935. New York: Harcourt, Brace.Google Scholar
43. Sechehaye, , Marguerite, , Autobiography of a Schizophrenic Girl, 1951. New York: Grune & Stratton. (Journal d'une Schizophrene, 1 vol., 138 p., P.U.F., Paris, 1950.)Google Scholar
44. Shreber, D. P., Memoirs of My Nervous Illness (Hunter, and MacAlpine, , eds.), 1955. London: William Dawson. (Orig. pub., Leipzig: Oswald Muse, 1903.)Google Scholar
45. Simpson, Doris G., The Plague of Psychiatry, 1957. New York: Greenwich Book Pub.Google Scholar
46. Simpson, , Jane, , The Lost Days of My Life, 1958. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
47. Wilkes, T. E. G., Hell's Cauldron, 1953. Atlanta: Stratton-Wilcox.Google Scholar
48. Wilson, , Wilma, , They Call Them Camisoles, 1940. California: Lymanhouse.Google Scholar
49. Wingfield, , Alysia, , The Inside of the Cup, 1958. London: Angus & Robertson.Google Scholar

C. Autobiographies of Mentally Ill People Who were not Hospitalized or Which were Written Prior to Hospitalization

50. Haitzman, C., in Schizophrenia, 1677, (McAlpine, and Hunter, , eds.), 1956. London: William Dawson.Google Scholar
51. Leonard, W. E., The Locomotive God, 1927. New York: Appleton-Century.Google Scholar
52. Nijinsky, , Romola, (ed.), The Diary of Vaslar Nijinsky, 1936. New York: Simon & Shuster.Google Scholar
53. Thelmar, E., The Maniac, 1932. (2nd ed.) London: Watts & Co. Google Scholar

D. Autobiographies in Which Mental Illness Forms an Unimportant Part of the Story

54. Anastasia, , Thelmar, E., I am Anastasia, 1958. New York: Harcourt, Brace.Google Scholar
55. Barrymore, D., Too Much, Too Soon.Google Scholar
56. Cocteau, J., Opium, the Diary of a Cure, 1958. New York: Grove Press.Google Scholar

E. Autobiographies Unobtainable for the Present Study

57. de Nerval, , Gérard, , “Le reve et la vie”, La Revue de Paris, 1855 ∗ .Google Scholar
58. Jayson, L. M., Mania, 1937. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.Google Scholar
59. Mrs.Packard, E. P. W., Modern Persecution or Insane Asylums Unveiled, 1873. Chicago: Privately printed.Google Scholar
60. Standenmaier, L., Magic as Experimental Science, 1912. Leipzig.Google Scholar
61. Vincent, J., Inside the Asylum, 1948. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar

F. Autobiographic Articles∗

Anon., “An autobiography of a schizophrenic experience”, J. Abnorm. Soc. Psychol., 1955, 51, 677–689.Google Scholar
Artaud, A., “Suppôts et supplications”, Les Temps Moderne, 1949, 4, 217–229.Google Scholar
Clare, , John, , “Written in Northampton County Asylum”, The Chilswell Book of English Poetry (Bridges, R., ed.), 1924. London: Longmans, Green (poem).Google Scholar
Dearborn, E. M., “Time out for death”, Psychiat. Quart., 1950, 24, 89.Google Scholar
Fichter, R., “One of us is sick”, The Independent, January-May, 1959.Google Scholar
Haslam, J., “Illustrations of madness” (1810), in Selected Readings in British Psychiatry (Hunter, , MacAlpine, and Payne, , eds.), 1955. London: Wm. Dawson.Google Scholar
Henderson, , Venita, (pseud.), “How I won my way back from a mental crack-up”, Chicago Sunday Tribune, 4 January, 1959.Google Scholar
Jane, X., “I am an alcoholic”, Toronto Daily Star, 1958.Google Scholar
Jerger, , Dierdre, (with Anna White, ), “I came home from insanity”, The American Weekly, 19 October, 1958.Google Scholar
Johnson, D. McI. (ed.), The Plea for the Silent, 1957. London: Christopher Johnson. (Contains eight autobiographical articles.)Google Scholar
Jones, , Mary, , “Breakdown and recovery”, Woman's Home Companion, January, 1953.Google Scholar
Kindwall, J. A., and Kinder, E. F., “Postscript on a benign psychosis”, Psychiatry, 1940, 3, 527–533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solomon, C., “Report from the asylum”, The Beat Generation and the Angry Young Men (Feldman, G. and Gartenberg, M., eds.), 1958. New York: Citadel Press.Google Scholar
Van Gogh, V., The Complete Letters of Vincent Van Gogh, 1958. New York Graphic Art Society.Google Scholar
Ward, , Mary Jane, , “Out of the dark ages”, Woman's Home Companion, August, 1946, 73, 34–35, 91–92.Google Scholar
Wendel, L., “If I am ever mentally ill again”, Modern Hospitals, May, 1946, 66, 49–43.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.