# 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:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![cart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ec8ea/32.png) [@cart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cart)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/41 "2003-01-13T12:26:39Z")
I don’t know if David Icke actually believes what he has written, or is just out to make money. If he is genuine, then either he’s mad or every other author is (I don’t think bookies are taking bets on both of these possibilities). I see William Burroughs’ son has been mentioned, what about William Burroughs himself? Jonathan Swift is considered by some to have gone mad - but I think this was after he had finished writing. ---
**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 13, 2003, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/42 "2003-01-13T16:29:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cart \* > \*\* > Jonathan Swift is considered by some to have gone mad - but I think this was after he had finished writing. \*\* Swift died insane and the 4th section of Gulliver’s Travels is generally considered evidence of his increasing mental illness with its obsessive mysophilia and mysophobia (respectively, morbid attraction and morbid revulsion to filth). There’s also several poems he wrote that are unintentionally hilarious with their delusional obsessions, especially toward women. I’m thinking of mainly of that “Celia shits!” poem. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/43 "2003-01-13T17:07:58Z")
Zoggie, the one of the first 5 Americans who won the Nobel Prize who wasn’t an alcoholic was Pearl S. Buck. Maybe she should have knocked back a few… ---
**Author:** ![Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dreaming_of_Maria_Callas)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/44 "2003-01-13T17:24:14Z")
People here seem to be misunderstanding what I meant in the OP. I’m not talking about novelists who happen to be mentally ill. I’m talking about the seriously ill who write and self-publish huge incoherent books in which they want to tell the world some message that will save them, like the “I was sexually abused by Kissinger and made a robot spy by Bob Hope - or was it the other way around?” book mentioned in the OP. Maybe Dianetics should be included, as [Ron was quite a nut](http://www.clambake.org/archive/ronthenut/) UnuMondo ---
**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 13, 2003, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/45 "2003-01-13T18:10:28Z")
Oh, you want books written by **kooks** , why didn’t you say so? How about _Worlds in Collision_ by Velikovsky? ---
**Author:** ![cart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ec8ea/32.png) [@cart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cart)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/46 "2003-01-13T19:01:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Adam P. \* > \*\*Swift died insane and the 4th section of Gulliver’s Travels is generally considered evidence of his increasing mental illness with its obsessive mysophilia and mysophobia (respectively, morbid attraction and morbid revulsion to filth). There’s also several poems he wrote that are unintentionally hilarious with their delusional obsessions, especially toward women. I’m thinking of mainly of that “Celia shits!” poem. \*\* I keep meaning to read more Swift. I’ve only read “Gulliver’s Travels” and “A Modest Proposal”. I don’t agree that the fourth book of “Gulliver’s Travels” shows Swift to be mad. It is certainly more ferocious than the first three books, and is probably a bit ahead of its time in this respect, but it seems rational enough to me. Remember also that although Gulliver ends up disgusted with humanity, Gulliver is not Swift. With regard to Swift’s reputation for misoqyny - from what I’ve read it seems he wrote far more words attacking men than he did women. Michael Foot (a politician who wrote the introduction to the edition of “Gulliver’s Travels” that I read) didn’t consider that Swift was mad when he wrote it. I’m not sure whether this constitutes a good reference or not though. I’m not saying that he wasn’t mad though, just that I don’t see anything mad in “Gulliver’s Travels”. ---
**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, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/47 "2003-01-13T21:39:18Z")
Thanks, **Ruby**. Really makes you think, doesn’t it? What about, I’m not sure, but it does make you think. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/48 "2003-01-13T23:04:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by UnuMondo \* > \*\*People here seem to be misunderstanding what I meant in the OP. I’m not talking about novelists who happen to be mentally ill. I’m talking about the seriously ill who write and self-publish huge incoherent books in which they want to tell the world some message that will save them, like the “I was sexually abused by Kissinger and made a robot spy by Bob Hope - or was it the other way around?” book mentioned in the OP. Maybe Dianetics should be included, as [Ron was quite a nut](http://www.clambake.org/archive/ronthenut/) > > UnuMondo \*\* In that case, may I recommend [How to Good-Bye Depression: If You Constrict Anus 100 Times Everyday. Malarkey? or Effective Way?](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0595094724/qid=1042498859/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-7600248-7723069) by Hiroyuki Nishigaki. > [@](#): > > think constricting anus 100 times and denting navel 100 times in succession everyday is effective to good-bye depression and take back youth. You can do so at a boring meeting or in a subway. I have known a 70-year-old man who has practiced it for 20 years. As a result, he has a good complexion and has grown 20 years younger. His eyes sparkle. He is full of vigor, happiness and joy. He has neither complained nor born a grudge under any circumstance. Furthermore, he can make #### three times in succession without drawing out. > > In addition, he also can have burned a strong, beautiful fire within his abdomen. It can burn out the dirty stickiness of his body, release his immaterial fiber or third attention, which has been confined to his stickiness. Then, he can shoot out his immaterial fiber or third attention to an object, concentrate on it and attain happy lucky feeling through the success of concentration. > > If you don’t know concentration, which gives you peculiar pleasure, your life looks like hell. If that ain’t crazy, I don’t know what is! ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/49 "2003-01-13T23:40:12Z")
Zoggie, Ruby and Rubystreak are two different people. I’m Rubystreak. If I’d realized there was a Ruby here, I’d have picked a different handle. Ah well. Does one consider Lewis Carroll (C.L. Dodgson) mental ill? If he was in fact a pedophile, which I’m not sure is 100% accurate, certainly he’d qualify as my favorite crazy author, after Mr. Faulkner, my personal hero. ---
**Author:** ![Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dreaming_of_Maria_Callas)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551/50 "2003-01-16T15:14:38Z")
Another extremely kooky book I’ve come across is [2150 A.D.](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author=Alexander%2C%20Thea/103-4675774-8347021) by Thea Alexander. Sadly, this was actually quite popular in the late 70’s. ☹ UnuMondo [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-by-the-mentally-ill/147551.md?page=2)