Library / Living With Mental Illness
Read this when
Professor Hieronimus
Went in asking for rest. Every protest got written down as a symptom. Amalie Skram wrote this from experience in 1895. 😤
Who it's for
Skram, who drew on her own 1894 psychiatric admission, puts the reader inside Else Kant's experience as she voluntarily seeks help for exhaustion and sleeplessness and finds that every protest is re-read as a symptom.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Amalie Skram's 1895 novel, which with its sequel At St. Jørgen's (Paa St. Jørgen, 1895) was translated into English by Katherine Hanson and Judith Messick as Under Observation (1992). Else Kant, a painter suffering from exhaustion, depression and insomnia, voluntarily enters Professor Hieronimus's psychiatric clinic hoping to recover her strength.
Where to find it
The Norwegian/Danish original (1895) is public domain. English translation 'Under Observation' (Women in Translation, 1992) is not public domain and may be out of print; look for used copies or librar.
Before you start
Heads up: Suicidal thoughts and psychiatric coercion.
Age: Ages 16+
I’ve got out at last,Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper
