Home Did you know

|  |

FAMOUS PEOPLE WITH A MENTAL ILLNESS

Abraham Lincoln
The 16th president, one of the greatest Americans, suffered from severe, incapacitating and occasionally suicidal depressions, documented in six biographical volumes by Carl Sandburg, and in numerous articles, including, “Dark Veil of Depression” by Judy Folkenburg, National Institute of Mental Health, published in The Consumer.

Lionel Aldridge
A defensive end for Vince Lombardi’s legendary Green Bay Packers of the 1960’s, Aldridge played in two Super Bowls. In the 1970’s, he suffered from schizophrenia and was homeless for two years. He now gives inspirational talks on his battle against paranoid schizophrenia. His story has been told in numerous newspaper articles, copies of which are available from the National Alliance of the Mentally Ill.

Ludwig Beethoven
The brilliant musician experienced manic depression, documented in Beethoven by Schauffler.

Leo Tolstoy
Author of War and Peace, one of the world’s greatest novels, Tolstoy told of his own mental illness in My Confession. It is also discussed in Dynamics of Creation by Anthony Storr and Inner World of Madness by Beet Kaplan.

Edgar Allen Poe
The famous author known for his eerie, inventive works, clearly experienced mental illness as documented in The Haunted Palace: The Life of Edgar Allen Poe by Frances Winwar.

Winston Churchill
Had he been a stable and equable man, he could never have inspired the nation. In 1940, when all odds were against Britain, a leader of sober judgement might well have concluded that we were finished,” wrote Anthony Storr in Churchill. Storr also discussed Churchill’s manic depression in his book The Dynamics of Creation.

Vivien Leigh
The actress who starred in” Gone With The Wind” suffered from mental illness, as documented in Vivien Leigh by Anne Edwards.

Sylvia Plath
The poet and novelist suffered mental illness as documented in A Memory of Sylvia Plath by Anne Edwards.

Patty Duke
The actress told of her bipolar illness in an autobiography, Call Me Anna, which became a television movie.

Charles Dickens
One of the greatest authors in the English language suffered from depression, as documented in Key To Genius by Hersham and Lieb, and Charles Dickens, Vols. I and II by Edgar Johnson.

|  |