# Books by the mentally ill **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 9, 2003, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551 "2003-01-09T17:46:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/21 "2003-01-10T08:35:53Z")
Was Kesey himself mentally ill (well - all those drug experiments…) or is it only the characters in “One Flew Over…” who are mentally ill? ---
**Author:** ![Adam\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Adam\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adam_P)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/22 "2003-01-10T18:57:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Pucky Schumer \* > \*\*One of the granddaddies in this class must be [“Memoirs of My Nervous Illness” by Daniel Paul Schreber.](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/094032220X/ref=pd_sim_books_1/002-0048391-9796868?v=glance&s=books#product-details/) > > I haven’t read, just heard about it. > > Excerpt: \*\* This is actually an important book and, unlike nearly all books by the mentally ill, is a well-written and oddly gripping read. Freud was the first to make it famous. It’s written by a German judge who suffered a complete psychotic break, believing his organs had been stolen form him (a typical delusion amongst schizophrenics) and that the sun was sending him secret messages directly into his anus. The book was a huge influence on the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (“Capitalism and Schizophrenia”). The writings of Antonin Artaud are another good example of well-written, influential work by someone classified as mentally ill. This poor bastard also suffered the worse kind of abuse by the psychiatric community of his time (the 1940s), subjected to hundreds of electro-shock treatments in a mere two-year period, a “treatment” that eventually killed him. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/23 "2003-01-10T19:25:29Z")
> [@](#): > > the sun was sending him secret messages directly into his anus I can only imagine what Freud thought of that. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/24 "2003-01-10T20:10:40Z")
I can give you a bibliography of works by people who have been diagnosed “mentally ill” who write about the politics and social status of being so diagnosed, of user-run self-help groups, of advocacy for the rights of the psychiatrically labeled, and condemnations of the mental health system and forced treatment and whatnot. (Post or email if interested) More in keeping with the theme of the thread so far: _The Looney Bin Trip_ by Kate Millett; _Too Much Anger, Too Many Fears_ by Janet Gotkin. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/25 "2003-01-10T20:13:44Z")
Oh, and read my [web site](http://home.earthlink.net/~ahunter)! I’m one of “them” myself 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/26 "2003-01-11T00:00:00Z")
[A Confederacy of Dunces](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0802130208/qid=1042243159/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-1921229-5310267?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by John Kennedy Toole. Haj ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/27 "2003-01-11T02:06:43Z")
iirc, nietzsche was known to be as mad as a hatter and was in a mental hospital at time of his death. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/28 "2003-01-11T06:06:30Z")
**Sunnybrook: A True Story with Lies** is fabulous. ---
**Author:** ![Pucky\_Schumer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@Pucky\_Schumer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pucky_Schumer)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/29 "2003-01-12T01:54:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Adam P. \* > \*\*This is actually an important book and, unlike nearly all books by the mentally ill, is a well-written and oddly gripping read. Freud was the first to make it famous. It’s written by a German judge who suffered a complete psychotic break, believing his organs had been stolen form him (a typical delusion amongst schizophrenics) and that the sun was sending him secret messages directly into his anus. The book was a huge influence on the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (“Capitalism and Schizophrenia”). > > \*\* Interesting. I knew about Freud’s connection with the work, but not the other influences. I’m curious as to how a work of unabashed schizophrenia becomes a philosophic influence. On another note, it seems we’re seeing several categories of works here: [ul] [li]Works that are published specificaly because they are by the mentally ill writing about their illness. (e.g. “Memoirs of My Nervous Illness,” Styron’s “Darkness Visible.”)[/li][li]Works by people complaining of their treatment for illness.[/li][li]Works that have little or nothing to do with mental illness but are by authors reputed to have problems. E.g. Twain, Hemingway. (When you consider the vast number of talented people who had problems, this is covering a pretty large swath of literature.)[/li][/ul] BTW, is the obsessive making of list considered a problem? ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/30 "2003-01-12T03:20:35Z")
Mark Vonnegut (son of Kurt, Jr.) wrote about his schizophrenia in a book called [The Eden Express](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1583225439/qid=1042340290/sr=1-27/ref=sr_1_27/104-3083526-2410326?v=glance&s=books). I tried to read it once. Maybe I should be ashamed to say that the choppy writing style prevented me from getting past the first chapter, but that’s how it is. I’m mildly surprised that no one’s linked to the thread I started today about [**Girl, Interrupted**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=155842). So here it is! Patty Duke’s book was [**Call Me Anna**](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553272055/qid=1042340569/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-3083526-2410326?v=glance&s=books). It’s a good read, and she seems pretty insightful about herself. There’s an amusing anecdote towards the end that takes place after she had been stabilized with lithium. She was going off on Sean for something he did: just a typical mom tearing a misbehaving son a new one, and for a good reason. Mackenzie heard all the yelling and said, “Mom, did you forget to take your lithium?” 😛 I also liked **When Rabbit Howls**. It was made into a TV movie with Shelley Long as Truddi Chase. I saw it in a hotel with my parents. We turned it on just as it was starting, knowing nothing about the subject matter. So we sat there for two hours, fascinated but mystified: why was this woman acting so erratically all the time? Naturally it had to do with the abuse she suffered as a child, but who changes moods so abruptly and dramatically? I think that was the first time I’d ever **heard** of multiple personality disorder. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/31 "2003-01-12T03:35:44Z")
Jane Bowles, wife of author/composer Paul Bowles was mentally ill when she wrote most of her works (though supposedly her husband didn’t help matters). William S. Burroughs son wrote two novels _Speed_ and _Kentucky Ham_ and he was most definately mentally ill. He eventually drank himself to death. ---
**Author:** ![ILENSER](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/977dab/32.png) [@ILENSER](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ILENSER)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/32 "2003-01-12T03:38:02Z")
A Charge to Keep George W. Bush, ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/33 "2003-01-12T03:53:02Z")
Don’t forget the great Swedish playwright **August Strindberg** , who was psychotic at least part of the time. His plays and diaries do have a strong touch of the erratic and the bizarre (think of _A Dream Play_ and _Ghost Sonata_); whether he wrote them that way because of his mental illness or whether he just wrote in an offbeat style because he was original and creative, I don’t know. But his book _The Inferno_ is a personal account of his insanity. His play _The Father_ is about a man who goes insane. Maybe **Anniz** could explain to us more about Strindberg. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/34 "2003-01-12T08:25:34Z")
Of the first 5 Americans to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, 4 of them (Hemingway, Steinbeck, Faulkner, and Lewis) were career alcoholics. Tells you something about the nature of the muse. ---
**Author:** ![Witch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@Witch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Witch)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/35 "2003-01-12T17:30:28Z")
Howdy. I’m “one” too. “An Unquiet Mind” A memoir of Moods and Madness, is written by Kay Redfield Jamison, a Professor of Psychiatry at the John Hopkins School of Medicine, and manic depressive. It was the first book I read after i myself was diagnosed bipolar. It’s fascinating. _I doubt sometimes whether a quiet and unagitated life would have suited me - yet I sometimes long for it._ ``` - BYRON ``` ---
**Author:** ![quarx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/50afbb/32.png) [@quarx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quarx)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/36 "2003-01-13T02:22:45Z")
In the same vein as Brice Taylor (People who publish under delusion, without necessarily realizing they’re mentally ill): David Icke and Lyndon LaRouche. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/37 "2003-01-13T03:04:06Z")
Just wondering, who was the fifth non career alcoholic who won? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/38 "2003-01-13T04:15:02Z")
What-no mention of Anne Heche? What about _Sybil_? Was it ever found whether or not she was a real person? ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/39 "2003-01-13T05:09:48Z")
I read an article that said, yes, Sybil was a real person (I believe they even gave her real name although I can’t remeber it now) but that a lot of the story in the book was innacurate and Dr. Wilber’s diagnosis as dubious as a lot of other cases of multiple personality have proven to be. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/40 "2003-01-13T06:00:01Z")
Back around 1960, I read a Readers’ Digest condensed book about a schizophrenic and his family. He wrote a separate account of his own perceptions titled “The Cardboard Giants”. While I was Googling to verify it, I found this page of books all by former mental patients: [http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/SommerR/htmAuto/library.htm](http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/SommerR/htmAuto/library.htm) Some of the books already mentioned are on it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551.md?page=3)