The Elephant Man
Although almost everyone is a patient at one time in their lives, the elephant man was famous for being a patient. In fact, a movie was made about his brief life in 19th century England. The elephant man is also discussed on the web page British Research in this website. Clifford Beers, on the other hand, lived in 20th century America, although it was early in the century. Beers was an advocate for improved health care. Beers wrote a book about his experiences in mental hospitals.
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This is the movie depiction of the elephant man as shown in 1980. "I'm not an animal!"
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Here is another Dali from art.com. It appears to represent time in a most peculiar way.
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These drawings were taken from the Huxley Institute website, which describes the 20th century artist Louis Wain as a schizophrenic. Maybe he needed a CAT scan. Maybe he was catatonic.
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Shown here is Maimonides, who was both a rabbi and a doctor. He was born in Spain in 1135 and died in 1204. He was writer. A theory published in the American Journal of Psychiatry is that Maimonides had depression, perhaps due to the death of his brother.
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Shown here is Clifford Beers, who was from New Haven, Connecticut. He was born in 1876 and died in 1943. After going to Yale University, Beers had a breakdown in 1900. He was put in a mental hospital for 3 years. In 1908 Beers wrote a book about his experiences called "A Mind That Found Itself". This book created a sensation because most people were unaware of what life was like in a mental hospital. The photo is from Mental Health Promotion website. This book started a mental health reform movement.
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This photo from the movie shows Merrick, played by John Hurt. Anthony Hopkins played a famous surgeon that wanted to help Merrick. Merrick's disease is now known as Proteus syndrome.
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Salvador Dali was a brilliant artist, but he was also listed as a schizophrenic by Dr. Sivano Arieti, a famous author of books on schizophrenia. Dali's paintings were certainly weird. This one was taken from a website which sells prints of his brilliant paintings.
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Shown here is a poster of van Gogh selfportraits from art.com. Note the one painting with the bandaged ear. It seems that in a moment of insanity he mutilated his own ear. Later the 19th century depressed painter shot himself to death.
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This photo of Karen Carpenter is from the Karen Carpenter Tribute website. She was born in 1950 and died of anorexia nervosa in 1983. She starved herself to death.
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Shown here is Dr. Alexander Alekhine, who was born in Moscow in 1892. As a white Russian he fled to France to avoid persecution after the Bolsheviks took over. He became World Chess Champion in 1927 by beating Capablanca. He played blindfold chess, and this may have caused mental strain. He began drinking, and lost the title in 1935. However, he won it back again in the rematch in 1937 and retained it until his death in 1946. He choked to death.
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