She was an American writer who took on writing from an early age by having a poem published at the age of 8. She killed herself in 1963 at the age of 30 after struggling her whole life with her bipolar disorder.
Suzanna Kayesen wrote "Girl, Interrupted" in 1993 as a memory of her hospitalization in MacLean Psychiatric Hospital in 1967. She was institutionalized for depression and borderline personality.
Zelda’s emotional instability led her to multiple psychiatric hospitalizations. In 1930, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia. In 1932, in Towson psychiatric clinic, she wrote “Save Me the Waltz,” an autobiographic novel about her life with her husband.
Aloize was hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital during the First World War for schizophrenia. She was a Swiss artist who started drawing and painting only after 1920. She was a major representative of the Art Brut movement.
Claude Claudel was at first a teacher but after she became aware for her talent in sculpting she transformed into a veritable artist well known also for her tumultuous relationship with Auguste Rodin. In 1913 she was interned in a psychiatric hospital in France and stayed there for the rest of her life until 1943 when she dies of malnutrition alone and depressed.
Unica Zurn was a very emotionally unstable German writer who used to create anagrams and has enough talent to be published in Berlin’s gallery. After she met Henri Michaux, the surreal writer with who she had an emotionally disturbing connection, she was hospitalized in a psychiatric clinic for depression and psychosis. She killed herself in 1970 after several past attempts.
Mary Barnes was a schizophrenia suffering British painter who voluntary admitted herself to Kinsley Hall, London. The object of this community was to cure patients without the use of psychiatry. She recovered completely from her schizophrenia and became a successful painter.
Janet Frame is a New Zeeland writer. She was highly traumatized during her childhood by the drowning of her two sisters. At the end o teens, in 1945 she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and interned in an asylum. She was electroshocked several times and during this period she started writing. Writing also saved her from lobotomy because she received a literature prize just prior the surgery. In 1961 she published a book called ‘Faces in the water’ about her experiences in the asylum.
Valerie Valere was suffering from anorexia therefore she was hospitalized in an asylum at the age of 13. A treatment which lasted for some months was sufficient to traumatize her deeply. After some years post treatment she started to write her biography about her experiences. The book was called Le Pavillon des infants fous. After the book’s publishing she became very popular in France.
Emma Santos is the least popular on this list but her voice and her writing were so powerful that she deserves to be here. She was frequently passing in and out of psychiatric hospitals. She wrote about her life at the suggestion of her doctor, Roger Gentis. She wrote 8 books, one after another, documenting the experiences inside the asylum.