Clifford Beers tells what it was like to be institutionalized at a time when mental illness received little attention or respect. A Mind that Found Itself is Beers’ own story, as one of five children who all suffered psychological distress and were all confined to mental institutions at one time or another., A mind that found itself; an autobiography by Beers, Clifford Whittingham, 1876-1943 Publication date 1908 Topics Mentally ill, Mental health, Mental Disorders, Hospitals, Psychiatric Publisher New York, Longmans, Green, and co. Collection columbialongmhl; medicalheritagelibrary; ColumbiaUniversityLibraries; americana; medicallibrary Contributor, Clifford Beers led a lifelong crusade, through the National Committee for Mental Hygiene and the American Foundation for Mental Hygiene, to revolutionize the care and treatment of the mentally ill. The persuasive chronicler of mental illness became a sophisticated, pragmatic organizer and reformer., In the groundbreaking book, Clifford Beers tells what it was like to be institutionalized at a time when mental illness received little attention or respect. A Mind that Found Itself is Clifford Beers’s own story, as one of five children who all suffered psychological distress and were all confined to mental institutions at one time or another., This powerful autobiography relates Beers' profound struggles with mental illness, detailing his experiences during a period of severe psychological distress marked by his feelings of persecution, delusions, and subsequent recovery., .