# Recommend non-fiction about mental illness **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 19, 2010, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713 "2010-12-19T14:30:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![saramamalana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@saramamalana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saramamalana)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/1 "2010-12-19T14:30:08Z")
I enjoy a good non-fiction book once in a while about someone’s personal struggle with mental illness and I’m looking for some new material to read. Books I’ve enjoyed along these lines are: Switching Time by Dr. Richard Baer Well Enough Alone and Devil in the Details by Jennifer Traig The Quiet Room by Amanda Bennett and Lori Schiller If it helps, I also like Malcolm Gladwell, Chuck Klosterman and AJ Jacobs. TIA! ---
**Author:** ![Acorns.but\_not\_Bacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@Acorns.but\_not\_Bacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acorns.but_not_Bacon)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/2 "2010-12-19T14:59:36Z")
I just finished **Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness** by **William Styron**. It’s a detailed account of his battle with severe depression [http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0099285576/ref=oss\_product](http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0099285576/ref=oss_product) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Amazing\_Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@The\_Amazing\_Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Amazing_Hanna)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/3 "2010-12-19T15:03:26Z")
> [@saramamalana](#): > > Switching Time by Dr. Richard Baer > Well Enough Alone and Devil in the Details by Jennifer Traig > The Quiet Room by Amanda Bennett and Lori Schiller Oliver Sachs´s books are very entertaining. Also: underlined text without links is enough to send the strongest mind tumbling over the cliff-edge of madness. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/4 "2010-12-21T00:53:31Z")
[The Eden Express](http://www.amazon.com/Eden-Express-Memoir-Insanity/dp/1583225439/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292892379&sr=1-1) by Mark Vonnegut is an account of his own descent into and recovery from schizophrenia. Mark is Kurt Vonnegut’s son, by the way. He more recently came out with [Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So: A Memoir](http://www.amazon.com/Just-Someone-Without-Mental-Illness/dp/0385343795/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1),which I haven’t read (yet). [Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania](http://www.amazon.com/Electroboy-Memoir-Mania-Andy-Behrman/dp/0812967089/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1292892590&sr=1-1) by Andy Behrman is the story of his life with bipolar disorder. ---
**Author:** ![saramamalana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@saramamalana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saramamalana)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/5 "2010-12-21T01:25:15Z")
Oooh great suggestions! Keep 'em coming! ---
**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:** [December 21, 2010, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/6 "2010-12-21T01:25:35Z")
On Our Own, by Judi Chamberlin. Founding member of Boston’s “Mental Patients’ Liberation Front” and a very accessible writer. Not a polemic. Too Much Anger, Too Many Tears, by Janet and Paul Gotkin. Frances Farmer: Shadowland. by William Arnold. Judge, Jury, Executioner. By Huey Freeman ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/7 "2010-12-21T01:32:45Z")
I _highly_ recommend _The Noonday Demon_, by Andrew Solomon, which is a memoir as well as a study of depression and how it is treated around the world. Excellent book, and, I found it personally very enlightening (as I am not clinically depressed). It won the National Book Award, so it’s not just my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/8 "2010-12-21T01:37:11Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Frances Farmer: Shadowland. by William Arnold. I recommend her autobiography, Will There Really Be A Morning? It may be out of print now, though. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/9 "2010-12-21T01:38:18Z")
An oldie but a goodie: [When Rabbit Howls](http://www.amazon.com/When-Rabbit-Howls-Truddi-Chase/dp/0515103292), by The Troops for [Truddi Chase](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Rabbit_Howls) Some really disturbing sex and physical abuse descriptions, beware. I have no idea \*what \*my mother was thinking to let me read it at 11 years old. But a fascinating book written by multiple personalities (alters) who chose NOT to integrate into one personality when that was unheard of in mental health treatment. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/10 "2010-12-21T02:09:14Z")
I enjoyed [Unholy Ghosts: Writers on Depression.](http://www.amazon.com/Unholy-Ghost-Depression-Nell-Casey/dp/0688170315) ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/11 "2010-12-21T02:12:12Z")
If you get a chance, pick up Jim Knipfel’s books. I’ve read both [Slackjaw](http://www.amazon.com/Slackjaw-memoir-Jim-Knipfel/dp/B000HWZ01K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1292897287&sr=8-1) and [Quiting the Nairobi Trio](http://www.amazon.com/Quitting-Nairobi-Trio-Jim-Knipfel/dp/0425178366/ref=pd_sim_b_1). Both are a tremendously witty, black humored look at severe depression, brain tumors, and genetic blindness. I can’t reccomend these books enough. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/12 "2010-12-21T02:23:47Z")
Try An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison ---
**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:** [December 21, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/13 "2010-12-21T03:31:58Z")
A thread from a year ago: [Books About the Mentally Ill and Therapist/Patient Relationships](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11881698) A much older thread: [Books by the mentally ill](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=155346) In that thread I posted a link to this list of books by former mental patients: [http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/SommerR/htmAuto/library.htm](http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/SommerR/htmAuto/library.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/14 "2010-12-21T03:48:21Z")
I haven’t read it yet but a friend just recommended that I pick up [You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know](http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Look-Like-Anyone-Know/dp/1594487731/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1292903015&sr=8-1) by Heather Sellers. It’s the memoirs of a woman who grows up with a schizophrenic parent, and later learns that she herself has prosopagnosia, or “face blindness”. While prosopagnosia isn’t really a mental illness, it’s a neurological problem, and a pretty interesting one, at that. Like I said, I haven’t picked up the book yet, but it’s on my holds list at the library. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/15 "2010-12-21T15:05:12Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > I _highly_ recommend _The Noonday Demon_, by Andrew Solomon, which is a memoir as well as a study of depression and how it is treated around the world. Excellent book, and, I found it personally very enlightening (as I am not clinically depressed). It won the National Book Award, so it’s not just my opinion. Seconded - this is excellent. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/16 "2010-12-21T15:10:01Z")
[My Sister’s Keeper: Learning to Cope with a Sibling’s Mental Illness](http://www.amazon.com/My-Sisters-Keeper-Learning-Siblings/dp/0393324044/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292944052&sr=1-5) by Margaret Moorman. I used to live in the same neighborhood as Margaret’s sister Sally. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/17 "2010-12-21T16:14:13Z")
[**The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat**](http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Mistook-His-Wife/dp/0684853949) is very technical for a book with such a whimsical title. Fascinating, but a dense read. ---
**Author:** ![saramamalana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@saramamalana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saramamalana)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/18 "2010-12-22T01:45:09Z")
Wow thanks everyone for all the suggestions!! **Max Torque** , I have that book and I agree with your assessment. So interesting, but so bogged down in the technical material. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/19 "2010-12-22T09:43:14Z")
[Al Alvarez](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Alvarez)’s _The Savage God_, a study of suicide. CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713/20 "2010-12-22T18:37:43Z")
Marya Hornbacher’s memoir, _Madness_, is a fascinating and really well-written work about her bi-polar disease. She has another memoir, the title of which escapes me at the moment. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-non-fiction-about-mental-illness/564713.md?page=2)