What are some good books about mental illness in the olden days?
I was just wondering if anyone knew of any good books about mental illness and how it was treated, stigmatized, etc. before the 1950s. I’d especially like ones about women and mental illness in the Victorian era.
I love the Bell Jar, but I haven’t read that Yellow Wallpaper book. I’ll have to look into it. And I keep meaning to see Arsenic and Old Lace.
Courtney C said,
Wrote on October 12, 2010 @ 9:20 pm
The Bell Jar.
Hermione Jean Granger said,
Wrote on October 12, 2010 @ 10:18 pm
There’s actually a comedy play-right called “Arsenic and Old Lace”, It’s set in the 1940s. I enjoyed watching and reading it!
smacleod16 said,
Wrote on October 12, 2010 @ 10:19 pm
um.. i read one a while ago about a woman that went crazy and tortured, then killed all the people in her small town because she thought that they were conspiring to sell her to Hitler as a prostitute.
REALLY gory, but a good story.
Harriet123P said,
Wrote on October 12, 2010 @ 11:16 pm
Definitely the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath as mentioned above. It’s astonishing. However, the best book EVER about mental illness from that era has to be ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman which is frighteningly autobiographical and absolutely brilliant. It’s only about forty pages long too – you can read it in half and hour. I challenge you not to be affected by it.
peacechic4life said,
Wrote on October 12, 2010 @ 11:40 pm
William Faulkner and James Joyce both wrote about mental illness and from the perspective of the mentally ill person.
There’s also One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, that deals with lobotomy.
Viola G. said,
Wrote on October 13, 2010 @ 12:40 am
Well, reading Harriet Beecher Stowe’s account of her life leads you down to the path of what it was like for people with mental problems. They used to dunk them in freezing cold water. Crazy methods!