Clifford Whittingham Beers

Clifford Whittingham Beers (March 30, 1876 – July 9, 1943) was an American author and psychiatric patient, best known as the founder of the American mental hygiene movement.

Biography

Beers was born in New Haven on March 30, 1876. He was one of five children, all of whom suffered from psychological distress and spent time in mental institutions, including Beers himself. He graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale in 1897, where he was business manager of The Yale Record and a member of Berzelius.

In 1900 he was first confined to a private mental institution for depression and paranoia. He would later be confined to another private hospital as well as a state institution. During these periods he experienced and witnessed serious maltreatment at the hands of the staff. His book A Mind That Found Itself (1908), an autobiographical account of his hospitalization and the abuses he suffered, was widely and favorably reviewed, became a bestseller, and is still in print.

Beers gained the support of the medical profession and others in the work to reform the treatment of the mentally ill. In 1908 Beers founded the "Connecticut Society for Mental Hygiene", now named Mental Health Connecticut. In 1909 Beers founded the "National Committee for Mental Hygiene", renamed "National Mental Health Association", now named "Mental Health America", in order to continue the reform for the treatment of the mentally ill. On June 26, 1912, Beers married his childhood friend and confidant Clara Jepson. The couple had no children.