There is a great tradition of mental illness in fiction. The Victorians liked to hide mad women in towers or attics, where they could slowly peel wallpaper from the walls or moan and groan to their heart's content, scaring the young governesses downstairs who were trying to sleep. Later, the books introduce readers to evil nurses, forced lobotomies, and botched attempts at electroshock therapy. Needless to say, mental illness was even less understood in the past than it is today.
Over the past few decades, there have been advances in the way mental illness is treated and described in literature. Characters can come down from the attic to tell their own stories. In memoirs, authors share their experiences in the first person. Girls, Interrupted , Prozac Nation , and Running with Scissors are just a few examples—check out this list of the 20 Greatest Mental Illness Memoirs for more recommendations.
The 11 novels listed below also talk candidly about mental illness. Sometimes the veil of fiction allows authors to tell a more truthful story—they can write without worrying about their reputation or their family's reaction. Their book provides a deeper understanding of mental illness and the way we deal with it in our culture. They also do what all great literature should do - make us know and care about the characters as people.
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925)
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A day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class British woman. The book criticizes the treatment of the mentally ill through the character of Septimus, a World War I veteran. Woolf used her own struggles with bipolar disorder to shape the character of Septimus.
Tender Is the Night (1934) by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the novel while his wife, Zelda, was hospitalized for schizophrenia. Set on the French Riviera in the 1920s, Tender Is the Night tells the story of psychoanalyst Dick Diver and his wife, Nicole... who also happens to be his patient.
The Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J.D. Salinger
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"The Catcher in the Rye" tells the classic story of dissatisfied youth and still sells about 250,000 copies a year. Our young hero Holden Caulfield first appears in Collier's 1945 short story "I'm Crazy."
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (1963)
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The Bell Jar, originally published under a pseudonym, is a semi-autobiographical account of Plath's own clinical depression, a feeling she described this way: "Wherever I sat - on the deck of a ship, or in Paris Or a street cafe in Bangkok – I’d sit under the same glass bell jar and suffer in my own sour air.”
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg (pseudonym: Hannah Green) (1964)
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Deborah Blau was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and spent three years in a mental hospital. Her story echoes the author's experiences, and the doctor in the story is based on her real-life doctor, the German psychiatrist Frieda Fromm-Reichmann.
Disturbing the Peace (1975) by Richard Yates
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This semi-autobiographical novel tells the story of John C. Wilder, an advertising man-turned-screenwriter who spent time in a mental hospital and (like Yates) suffered from Having alcohol-induced paranoia.
Ordinary People (1976) by Judith Guest
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Conrad attempted suicide after his brother's tragic death, so his parents committed him to a mental hospital. After his release from prison, with the help of a psychiatrist, Conrad examined his depression and tried to understand his frosty relationship with his mother. The film adaptation of "Normal People" starring Mary Tyler Moore won the 1980 Academy Award for Best Picture.
She's Ruined (1992) by Wally Lamb
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Delores Price slowly unravels after experiencing a traumatic event as a teenager. As a woman in her twenties, she spent several years in an institution after a suicide attempt. She eventually gave up treatment and tried to rebuild her life on her own terms. Lamb continued to write about mental illness in his next book, "I Know This Much is True."
The Hours by Michael Cunningham (1998)
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Inspired by the first book on our list , Mrs. Dalloway , this story reveals a day in the life of three women from three different time periods, including Virginia Woolf herself. In 1999, "The Hours" won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
The Passion of Alice (1998) by Stephanie Grant
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One of the lesser-known novels on this list, "The Passion of Alice" is a vivid, unflinching portrait of a 25-year-old woman who nearly ended up in an eating disorder clinic with heart failure .
The Marriage Plot (2011) by Jeffrey Eugenides
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One of the novel's protagonists, Leonard, suffers from manic depression, which affects his work, friendships, and romantic relationships. In an interview with Slate, Eugenides quashed rumors that Leonard was based on David Foster Wallace.
