There are many fictional accounts of mental distress and of incarceration in lunatic asylums, bins or psychiatric hospitals (however described). Some focus on the internal travails people experience, others the imposition of the grim institutional experience, few provide either a more balanced account or the sociological context in which their treatment and care was provided. Survivors accounts always offer different perspectives on the experience of hospitalisation and treatment.
A fuller listing is available on request, and suggestions for additions are welcomed.
Buster's Fired a Wobbler - Geoff Burrell, 1981, Penguin
Highly recommended companion fiction to our account in Asylum Years. The author was a psychiatric nurse and picks up on some of the absurdities of the institutional system. While condensed for effect, the patients and situations described all ring true. The details of the wards and departments remind us of many of the aspects of the institution we had forgotten.
The Ha-Ha - Jennifer Dawson, 1961 (republished by Faber Editions, 2025)
A subtle account of a relapse into schizophrenia and period in a large mental hospital
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden - Joanne Greenberg, 1964 (republished by Penguin Modern Classics, 2022)
Exposé novel on conditions and harsh treatment in a large mental hospital.
First published under the pseudonym Hannah Green.
Faces in the Water - Janet Frame, 1961 (republished by Virago Modern Classics 2009)
Drawing on the author’s experience, the painful story of institutional treatment with ECT.
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest - Ken Kesey, 1962 (republished by Penguin Modern Classics, 2005)
Famously a film which, whilst a bit of a caricature, raises some issues about institutional policy and care.
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath, 1963 (republished by Faber & Faber, 2005)
Novelised account of the auther's descent into depression and subsequent hospitalisation.
First published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas.
There are literally hundreds of books written on mental institutions and those treated therein. Most are written by doctors (psychiatrists) or psychiatric nurses and tend to provide a rather singular view, but there are notable exceptions, some of which are listed here.
There are some interesting accounts from academics and researchers, some of which are referenced in our book, but, in our view, the non-fiction reports by survivors merits more precedence.
Nellie Bly; Ten Days in a Mad-House, 1887 (Republished in 2025).
Based on articles written while Bly was on an undercover assignment for the New York World, feigning insanity at a women's boarding house, so as to be involuntarily committed to an insane asylum.
Barham, P. (1984) Schizophrenia and Human Value.
Barham, P., Beresford, P., Wallwork, K. (eds. 2025)
At the Heart of a Mad Movement: The Life and Work of Peter Campbell.
Beresford, P., Russo, J. (eds. 2021)
International Handbook of Mad Studies.
Carter, P. (2024)
My Asylum Days: How Mental Health Policy Has Changed.
Hilton, C. (2025)
Petty Tyrannies and Soulless Discipline: Policy and Practice in Public Mental Health Hospitals 1918-1930.
Mallett, A. (2021)
Tales from the Asylum: Anecdotes.
Read, J., Reynolds, J. (eds. 1996)
Speaking Our Minds.
Russo, J., Sweeney, A. (eds. 2016)
Searching for a Rose Garden: Challenging Psychiatry,
Fostering Mad Studies.
Wallcraft, J., Read, J., Sweeney, A. (2003)
On Our Own Terms: Users and Survivors of Mental Health Services Working Together for Support and Change.
14 December 2025
