Books (and Other Resources) By or About People with a Mental Illness

Last update: 1 November 2012,
by Maureen Bell

The Library holds many fictional and biographical accounts of mental illness. A selection is listed below (in alphabetical order by title). Further down the page you will find some web sites which describe people's experience of various mental illnesses.

Further lists of books and journal articles relating to biographical accounts of mental illness can be found on my bibliographies and reading lists page.

The journal Schizophrenia Bulletin has a First Person Account in most issues.

All of it : a memoir of love, art and fear / Bev Aisbett.
Sydney : HarperCollins, 2012.
BSL Main collection

'All that summer she was mad' : Virginia Woolf and her doctors, by Stephen Trombley
London : Junction Books, c1981
BSL Main Collection 823 W91Z.TR

Altered lives : personal experiences of schizophrenia, as told to Mary Clark ; photography by Ann Balla.
North Fitzroy, Vic. : Schizophrenia Fellowship of Victoria, c1994.
BSL Main Collection 616.89820092 C594a

An angel at my table : an autobiography, volume 2, by Janet Frame.
London, Women's Press, 1984.
Vol. 2 of the author's 3 volume autobiography. Vol. 1. To the is-land -- Vol. 3. The envoy from mirror city.
BSL Main Collection 92 F805a

Angelhead : my brother's descent into madness, by Greg Bottoms.
New York : Crown Pub., 2000.
BSL Main collection 616.89820092 B751.B

Asylum : Hollywood tales about my great depression : brain dis-ease, recovery, and being my mother’s son / Joe Pantoliano.
New York : Weinstein Books, c2012.
BSL Main collection 791.43028 P198a

Asylum piece and other stories, by Anna Kavan [i.e. H. W. Edmonds]
New York, N.Y : M. Kesend Pub, [1980] c1972
BSL Main Collection 823 E24a

The bell jar, by Sylvia Plath.
London : Faber & Faber, 1966, c1963
BSL Main Collection 813 P716

Bitter medicine : a graphic memoir of mental illness / Clem Martini and Olivier Martini.
Calgary : Freehand Books, c2010.
BSL Main collection 616.8980092 M3861.M

The black veil : a memoir with digressions, by Rick Moody.
Boston : Little, Brown, c2002.
BSL Main Collection 813 M8175b

Breakdown : a personal crisis and a medical dilemma, by Stuart Sutherland.
London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1976
BSL Main Collection 616.89 S966b
Joint Store JJ391

Breakthru : dear society, open your mind! Ten ex-patients of Hillcrest Psychiatric Hospital tell their stories [edited by Barbara Heaslip].
[Adelaide?], Liberation Press, 1973
BSL Main Collection 616.89 B828
Joint Store G12227

The catch of hands : an autobiography, by Benedicta Leigh.
London : Virago, 1991.
BSL Main Collection 942.082092 L528c

The center cannot hold : my journey through madnes, by Elyn R. Saks.
New York : Hyperion, c2007.
BSL Main collection 616.89820092 S1588c

Certifiable truths : stories of love and madness, compiled and edited by Jane Messer. St. Leonards, N.S.W., Allen & Unwin, 1998
BSL Main Collection 823.08A M584c

Chrysalis Press publications.
Adelaide Society of Publishing for Mental Health, 1998
BSL Main Collection 616.89005 C558
Numbering assigned by Library

The company : the story of a murderer, by Arabella Edge.
Sydney : Picador, 2000.
BSL Main Collection 823A E235c

Consuming psychotherapy, by Ann France.
London, Free Association Books, 1988
BSL Main Collection 616.8914 F815c

Cry of the invisible : writings from the homeless and survivors of psychiatric hospitals, edited by Michael A. Susko.
Baltimore, Conservatory Press, 1991
BSL Main Collection 810.8 S964c

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time / Mark Haddon.
London : Definitions, 2004.
BSL Main collection 823 H127c

Darkness visible : a memoir of madness, by William Styron.
London, Jonathan Cape, 1991
BSL Main Collection 92 S9369d

Daughter of the Queen of Sheba, by Jacki Lyden.
London : Virago, 2001, c 1999
BSL Main Collection 616.890092 L983d

The day the voices stopped : a memoir of madness and hope, by Ken Steele and Claire Berman.
New York : Basic Books, 2001.
BSL Main Collection 616.89820092 S814d

The diary of Vaslav Nijinsky / translated from the Russian by Kyril FitzLyon ; edited by Joan Acocella Unexpurgated edition.
London :, Allen Lane,. 1999.
BSL Main Collection 792.8092 N691d

Dibs : in search of self ; personality development in play therapy, by Virginia M. Axline.
London : Gollancz, 1966.
Joint Store JJ782

Dilemma of dementia, by Julia Millen
Auckland [N.Z.] : Lansdowne, 1985
BSL Main Collection 616.8983 M646

Divided minds : twin sisters and their journey through schizophrenia, by Pamela Spiro Wagner and Carolyn S. Spiro.
New York : St. Martin’s Press, c2005.
BSL Main Collection 616.8980092 W134d

Divine madness : ten stories of creative struggle, by Jeffrey A. Kottler.
San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, 2006.
BSL Main Collection 153.35 K877d

The Eden express, by Mark Vonnegut.
Toronto, Bantam Books, 1976
Joint Store G59047

Emotional illness and creativity : a psychoanalytic and phenomenologic study, by Richard D. Chessick.
Madison, Conn., International Universities Press, 1999
BSL Main Collection 153.35 C524e

The envoy from mirror city : an autobiography, volume 3, by Janet Frame.
London, Women's Press, 1985.
Vol. 3 of the author's 3 volume autobiography. Vol. 1. To the is-land -- Vol. 2. An angel at my table
BSL Main Collection 92 F805e

Eyes without sparkle : a journey through postnatal illness, by Elaine A. Hanzak ; foreword by Diana Lynn Barnes and Judith Ellis.
Oxford : Radcliffe, 2005.
BSL Main Collection 618.76 H2521ZH

The Faber book of madness, edited by Roy Porter.
London, Faber and Faber, 1993
BSL Main Collection 616.8909 P847f 1993

The fasting girl : a true Victorian medical mystery, by Michelle Stacey.
New York : Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, c2002.
BSL Main Collection 362.25 F199ZS

The first and final nightmare of Sonia Reich : a son’s memoir, by Howard Reich.
New York : Public Affairs, c2006.
Barr Smith Main collection 362.1968521 R347ZR

Flying with paper wings : reflections on living with madness / Sandy Jeffs.
Carlton North, Vic. : Vulgar Press, 2009.
Barr Smith Main collection 616.8980092 J474f

From the ashes of experience : reflections on madness, survival and growth, edited by Phil Barker, Peter Campbell, Ben Davidson.
London, Whurr, 1999
BSL Main Collection 362.2 B255f

A guard within, by Sarah Ferguson.
Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1976
Roseworthy Books 920 FER

The hands of the living god : an account of a psycho-analytic treatment, by Marion Milner.
New York : International Universities Press, c1969.
Joint Store JJ747

Helicopter man / Elizabeth Fensham.
London : Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2005.
BSL Main Collection 823A F341h

Heralds of the postmodern : madness and fiction in Conrad, Woolf, and Lessing, by Yuan-Jung Cheng.
New York, Peter Lang, 1999
BSL Main Collection 823.09 C518h

Hitler : diagnosis of a destructive prophet, by Fritz Redlich.
New York, Oxford University Press, 1999
BSL Main Collection 943.086 H67ZRE

Holiday of darkness : a psychologist's personal journey out of his depression, by Norman S. Endler.
New York : Wiley, c1982.
BSL Main Collection 616.89500924 E56h

I never promised you a rose garden : a novel by Hannah Green.
New York, Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1964
BSL Main Collection 813 G7963i

I'm dancing as fast as I can, by Barbara Gordon.
New York, Harper & Row, 1979
BSL Main Collection 92 G6615i

In the jaws of the black dogs : a memoir of depression, by John Bentley Mays.
New York, HarperCollinsPublishers, 1999
BSL Main Collection 616.890092 M474i

The Inner world of mental illness : a series of first-person accounts of what it was like, edited by Bert Kaplan.
New York, Harper and Row, 1964
BSL Main Collection 616.89 K17

The inward sun : celebrating the life and work of Janet Frame, selected & edited by Elizabeth Alley.
St. Leonards, N.S.W., Allen & Unwin, 1994
BSL Main Collection 823A F81Z.A

Jaco : the extraordinary and tragic life of Jaco Pastorius, "the world's greatest bass player", by Bill Milkowski.
San Francisco, CA : Miller Freeman Books ; Emeryville, CA : Publishers Group West [book trade distributor] ; Milwaukee, WI : Hal Leonard [music trade distributor], c1995.
Music Main Collection 781.65092 P293.M

The key : an autobiography, by Tom Guy.
Adelaide, [Chrysalis Press] Mental Health Unit SA Health Commission, 1998
BSL Main Collection 616.89005 C558 1

The less travelled way : a young woman's journey through the world of madness, by June Wrigley.
Melbourne, Collins Dove, 1990
BSL Main Collection 616.890092 W954l

The life of D.G. Monrad, 1811-1887 : manic-depressive disorder and political leadership, by Johan Schioldann-Nielsen ; foreword by Nils Retterstol.
[Odense], Odense University Press, 1988
BSL Main Collection 616.8950092 M752.S

Lincoln’s melancholy : how depression challenged a president and fueled his greatness, by Joshua Wolf Shenk.
Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co., 2005.
BSL Main Collection 973.7 S5468l

Living with schizophrenia, by Stuart Emmons ... [et al.].
Washington, DC : Accelerated Development, c1997
BSL Main Collection 616.89820922 E54l

The loony bin trip, by Kate Millett.
London, Virago, 1991
BSL Main Collection 616.8950092 M653l

Mad Lucas : the strange story of Victorian England's most famous hermit, by Richard Whitmore.
[Hitchin] : North Hertfordshire District Council, 1983.
BSL Main Collection 92 L9333.W

The madness of our lives : experiences of mental breakdown and recovery, by Penny Gray ; foreword by Peter Campbell.
London ; Philadelphia : Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2006.
BSL Main collection 616.8900922 G7814m

Malignant sadness : the anatomy of depression, by Lewis Wolpert.
London, Faber and Faber, 1999
BSL Main Collection 616.895 W866m

Managing with Asperger syndrome, by Malcolm Johnson.
Philadelphia, PA : Jessica Kingsley, 2005.
BSL Main Collection 616.85882 J681m

Mania and literary style : the rhetoric of enthusiasm from the Ranters to Christophe Smart Clement Hawes.
Cambridge ; New York, Cambridge University Press, 1996
BSL Main Collection 820.9 H391m

Mary Barnes : two accounts of a journey through madness, by Mary Barnes and Joseph Berke.
London, MacGibbon and Kee, 1971
BSL Main Collection 362.2 B261

My Kleinian home : a journey through four psychotherapies, by Nini Herman.
London, Free Association Books, 1988
BSL Main Collection 150.195092 H551m

My life as a side effect : living with depression, by Milissa Deitz.
Milsons Point, N.S.W. : Random House Australia, 2004.
BSL Main Collection 616.8527 D325m

"My madness saved me" : the madness and marriage of Virginia Woolf / Thomas Szasz.
New Brunswick, N.J. : Transaction Publishers, c2006.
BSL Barr Smith Main collection 823 W91ZSZ

My sister's keeper : learning to cope with a sibling's mental illness, by Margaret Moorman.
New York, Norton, 1992
BSL Main Collection 616.89820092 M825s

Nadia : a case of extraordinary drawing ability in an autistic child, by Lorna Selfe.
London ; New York, Academic Press, 1977
BSL Main Collection 155.45 S465n

Never have your dog stuffed : and other things I’ve learned, by Alan Alda.
London : Hutchinson, 2006.
BSL Main collection 792.028 A357n

No time for dances : a memoir of my sister / Gillian Bouras. Camberwell, Vic. : Penguin, 2006.
Barr Smith Main collection 616.89092 B766n

The noonday demon : an anatomy of depression, by Andrew Solomon.
London : Chatto & Windus, 2001.
BSL Main Collection 616.85270092 S689n

Nothing was the same : a memoir, by Kay Redfield Jamison.
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.
BSL Main Collection: 616.8950092 J32n

On not being able to paint, by Joanna Field [Marion Milner] ; with illustrations by the author.
London : Heinemann, 1950.
BSL Main Collection 750.1 F45

Only a mother could love him : how I lived with and triumphed over ADHD, by Benjamin Polis.
Rev. ed.
London : Hodder Mobius, 2005.
BSL Main Collection 618.928589 P768o

Ordinary insanity, by Emma Pierce.
Dulwich Hill, N.S.W, P.E. Pierce, 1987
BSL Main Collection 362.2 P615o

Out of the dark / Linda Caine and Robin Royston.
London : Bantam Press, 2003.
BSL Main Collection 616.890092 C135o

The outsider : a journey into my father's struggle with madness, by Nathaniel Lachenmeyer.
New York :, Broadway Books,. c2000.
BSL Main Collection 616.89820092 L137o

Pendulum swing, by M.L. Donovan-Urquhart.
Dalkeith, W.A., Soar, 1994
BSL Main Collection 616.890092 D687p

The phenomenology of my experience with schizophrenia, by Karen Christine Poelman.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 1980.
BSL Main Collection 616.89820092 P744p

Prozac diary, by Lauren Slater.
London, Penguin, 1998
BSL Main Collection 616.890092 S631p

Recovered, not cured : a journey through schizophrenia, by Richard McLean.
Crows Nest, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 2003.
BSL Main Collection 616.89820092 M163r

Rites of passage : my schizophrenic youth in mosaic, byJason Stuart Ratcliff.
Lincoln, NE : Writers Club Press, c2002.
BSL Main Collection 616.8980092 R233r

Robby Rose and Monkey, by Andrea Louis ; illustrated by John Siow.
Adelaide, Aust. : Andrea Louis, c1995.
BSL Main Collection 618.76 L888r

The rock pillow, by Lynne Folkard.
South Fremantle, W.A., Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1992
BSL Main Collection 616.89820092 F666r

Sabina Spielrein : forgotten pioneer of psychoanalysis, edited by Coline Covington and Barbara Wharton.
Hove ; New York : Brunner-Routledge, 2003.
BSL Main collection 616.8917 S7555ZC

Schizophrenia from within, edited by John Wing.
Surbiton : National Schizophrenia Fellowship, 1975.
Joint Store G59050-59051

The secret scripture : a novel / by Sebastian Barry.
London : Faber and Faber, 2008.
BSL Main collection 823 B281s

The siege, by Clara Claiborne Clark
Gerrards Cross : Smythe, 1968
BSL Main Collection 136.76 P229

The snake pit, by Mary Jane Ward.
Cutchogue, N.Y., Buccaneer, 1983
BSL Main Collection 813 W26

A social history of madness : stories of the insane, by Roy Porter
London : Weidenfeld and Nicolson, c1987
BSL Main Collection 616.8909 P847s

Songs from the black chair : a memoir of mental interiors, by Charles Barber.
Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, c2005.
BSL Main collection 616.890092 B2341s

Soul murder revisited : thoughts about therapy, hate, love, and memory, by Leonard Shengold.
New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 1999
BSL Main Collection 616.858223 S546s

The Survivors : the experience of mental illness, by family members Association of Relatives and Friends of the Mentally Ill (Launceston) Inc.
Launceston, Tas., The Association, 1994
BSL Main Collection 362.20425 A849s

Survivor's poetry : from dark to light.
London, Survivor's Press, 1992
BSL Main Collection 821 S963s

Sybil : the true story of a woman possessed by sixteen separate personalities, by Flora Rheta Schreiber
Ringwood, Vic : Penguin Books, 1975, c1973
BSL Main Collection 616.8582 S378s

A tale to tell, by Yetta Rothberg
Melbourne : Spectrum, 1984
BSL Main Collection 616.898200924 R845t

Tell me I'm here, by Anne Deveson.
Ringwood, Vic., Penguin, 1991
BSL Main Collection 616.898200924 D491t

There must be lions : stories about mental illness / Nick Earls, Sonya Hartnett, Heide Seaman. Charnwood, A.C.T. : Ginninderra Press, 1998.
BSL Main Collection 823.08A E12t

Through a foreign land : one man's experience through a nervous breakdown, by Alexander J. Davidson.
Adelaide, Lutheran Publishing House, 1984
BSL Main Collection 616.895 D252t

'Tis all one : "The anatomy of melancholy" as belated copious discourse, by Mary Murphy Schmelzer.
New York, P. Lang, 1999
BSL Main Collection 828 B97ZSC

To the is-land : autobiography 1, by Janet Frame.
London : Flamingo, 1993, c1982.
Vol. 1 of the author's 3 volume autobiography. Vol. 2. An angel at my table -- Vol. 3. The envoy from mirror city.
BSL Main Collection 92 F805t.F

Touched with fire : manic-depressive illness and the artistic temperament Kay Redfield Jamison. New York Toronto New York, Free Press ; Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; Maxwell Macmillan International, 1993
BSL Main Collection 616.895 J32t

Trips & journeys : personal accounts of early psychosis.
Parkville, Vic. : Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre, 2000, 2002 reprint.
BSL Main Collection 616.898 E123t

Undercurrents : a therapist's reckoning with her own depression, by Martha Manning.
New York, N.Y. : HarperCollins Pub., c1994.
BSL Main Collection 616.8527 M284u

An unquiet mind Kay Redfield Jamison.
New York, A.A. Knopf, 1995
BSL Main Collection 616.8950092 J32u

Washing my life away : surviving obsessive-compulsive disorder, by Ruth Deane.
Philadelphia : Jessica Kingsley Publishers, c2005.
BSL Main Collection 616.85227 D284w

Welcome silence : my triumph over schizophrenia, by Carol S. North.
London : Simon & Schuster, 1988, c1987.
BSL Main Collection 616.898200924 N864w

What goes up ... : surviving the manic episode of a loved one, by Judy Eron.
Fort Lee, NJ : Barricade Books, 2005.
BSL Main Collection 616.8950092 E718w

What's normal? : narratives of mental & emotional disorders, edited by Carol Donley & Sheryl Buckley.
Kent, Ohio, Kent State University Press, 2000
BSL Main Collection 808.80353 D684w

When the music's over : a journey into schizophrenia, by Richard Gates and Richard Hammond ; [with a foreword by Anne Deveson]
Armidale, N.S.W. : University of New England Press, 1993.
BSL Main Collection 616.89820092 B959w

Where the roots reach for water : a personal & natural history of melancholia, by Jeffery Smith.
New York, North Point Press, 1999
BSL Main Collection 616.8527 S651w

Wings of madness : a mother’s journey, by Jo Buchanan.
Frenchs Forest, N.S.W. : New Holland Publishers, 2004.
BSL Main Collection 616.890092 B9186w

Wizard 6 : a combat psychiatrist in Vietnam / Douglas Bey. College Station : Texas A&M University Press, 2006.
Barr Smith Main collection 959.70437 B5731w

Wounded healers : mental health workers' experiences of depression, edited by Vicky Rippere and Ruth Williams ; with a foreword by Joseph Connolly.
Chichester ; New York, Wiley, 1985
BSL Main Collection 616.8527 W938

Wrestling with the angel : a life of Janet Frame, by Michael King.
Chippendale, N.S.W. : Picador, 2000.
BSL Main Collection 823A F81ZK

Zelda Fitzgerald : her voice in paradise, by Sally Cline.
London : John Murray, 2002.
BSL Main collection 813 F5543ZC

Web Sites

All In The Mind - Books (Literature)
Transcripts of programmes dealing with books and literature from ABC Radio National's All in the Mind. Below are some links to additional programmes of intertest.

All In The Mind - 13 February, 2010 - Kay Redfield Jamison
An interview with Kay Redfield Jamison, discussing her new memoir, Nothing Was the Same, recounting two decades with her partner, leading schizophrenia researcher Richard Wyatt, who died in 2002. To her, grief and depression differ in profound ways.

All in the Mind -16 September, 2006 - In the Family - A Journey through Madness
Penelope and Lloyd met and married after years of cycling in and out of Perth's psychiatric institutions. Penelope's 19-year-old daughter, Tynx, also joins them to tell Natasha Mitchell their story.

All in the Mind - 11 February, 2006 - The prison of depression - a conversation with Dorothy Rowe

All in the Mind - 21 August, 2004 - A Shrink's Story - Inside the Bipolar Experience

American Experience | A Brilliant Madness: The Story of Nobel Prize Winning Mathematician John Nash
A resource from PBS in the United States. Intended as an educational resource for teachers.

Angels and Demons
Enough Rope with Andrew Denton - episode 162: April 7th 2008. Andrew Denton visits the TheMHS Conference and interviews participants about their experiences with mental illness.

Autobiography page
This is a page devoted to identifying and listing autobiographies of mental patients. It belongs to Professor Bob Sommer of the Psychology Department of the University of California at Davis. It includes the text of an article on the subject, published by Professor Sommer and others in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 1998

Ethnic Differences in the Context and Experience of Psychiatric Illness: A Qualitative Study
This is the report of a survey carried out on behalf of the Department of Health by the National Centre for Social Research, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Royal Free and University College Medical School, and published by The Stationery Office, May 2002.

Healthtalkonline: Depression
Healthtalkonline: Mental Health
Healthtalkonline: Psychosis
Healthtalkonline is an award-winning charity website, that lets you share in other people's experiences of health and illness. This information is based on qualitative research into patient experiences led by experts at the University of Oxford.

Mood: Personal Pages
From the Open Directory, links to pages which contain personal accounts of the experience of depressive illness.

Personality, Pathology, and The Act of Creation: The Case of Alfred Hitchcock
From the Stanton Peele Addiction Web Site, this is an article by Stanton Peele published in Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, 9(3):202-218, Summer 1986.

Sylvia Plath Homepage
This page is produced by Anja Beckmann, and contains a wide range of resources on Sylvia Plath's life and work.

The Vincent van Gogh Gallery
An extensive collection of resources including Van Gogh's letters to family and friends.