Madness and Modernism by Louis A. Sass, 1998. His book details the impact the mentally ill made on early 20th century art and literature. Sass reveals how the mentally ill mind works to comprehend our world through unique points of view and how modern culture accepts it as beautiful or unique in various art forms.
Artists such as Salvador Dali and artistic movements such as surrealism and Dadaism used the mentally ill mind as bases in their artistic works. Mentally ill artists earned fame and promise in the Outsider Art movements with their “discovered” works in the literary or visual arts. Sass will open your eyes to how the mentally ill mind perceives and how art has embraced it.
Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker, 2010, delves into how American society treats mental illness. He wonders why so many people are receiving these new psychotropic drugs and diagnoses of bipolar and ADHD when 50 to 100 years ago, few people were classified as such and did well without medication, albeit they had definite periods of illness.
He takes the reader through psychology’s metamorphosis from the brave new science to a badly mismanaged industry, rife with bureaucratic bungling and big business abuses. Whitaker reveals shocking truths behind the myth that tossing out the right medications can fix mental illness. Many readers will nod their heads in agreement about what the author says.