Guest Editor – Vanessa Vestergaard, Operation Santa Claus Program Director

This month in February, Mental Health America of Greenville County (MHAGC) celebrates 70 years of being the original community-led, non-profit mental health organization in Greenville County. As we look upon any major anniversary, history comes to mind because it allows a greater understanding of the important beginnings that have led to the present. For MHAGC, it begins with Clifford Whittingham Beers. He is our agency’s “founding father” who, through his lived experience and other outside influences, became a leader in the mental health reform movement in the early 1900s.

For any individual, early adulthood shapes how we see ourselves and influences us well into life. For Clifford Beers, it was especially true. He lost two siblings to suicide and another sibling had severe epilepsy. Throughout Beers’ education at Yale University, these hardships weighed heavily on him and caused great anxiety and depression. In 1897, he graduated from Yale but soon after was admitted to a mental hospital due to a suicide attempt.  It was at this Connecticut State Hospital, where he vowed to spearhead mental health reform in 1905.

Clifford Beers could be considered one of the first “investigative reporters” on mental health treatment of his time. Throughout his hospital stay, he documented the use of isolation, enduring “three hundred hours in all” in the “snug, but cruel embrace of a straitjacket.” His suffering was compounded by a lack of communication with his family and by protests that were “robbed of their right ring of truth.” These experiences and his deep sense of injustice were detailed in his book, A Mind That Found Itself: An Autobiography, published in 1908. Thus, a reform movement was born—but not without support from major thinkers of the time, particularly William James.

William James was a major influence as an editor to Clifford Beers’ autobiography, a supporter of his movement, and a major benefactor to his newly formed Connecticut Society for Mental Hygiene in 1908.  At the time, Beers was heavily advised by his family and others to be quiet about his experiences at the mental health hospital. Out of sheer desire to institute reform, he wanted to publicize the conditions and spread awareness. His support from William James allowed him to be confident about this brave step.

William James lent his name to the reform movement that Clifford Beers sought to establish. At the time, James was the publisher of The Varieties of Religious Experience, a leading figure in American psychology, and likely an influence on Beers. Interestingly, James rejected the term “mental hygiene” and suggested “mental insanity” as the name for the newly formed society. However, Beers refused to alter the name or vision of his organization, demonstrating his commitment to redefining the terminology of the era. Still, James donated $1,000—a significant sum at the time—to help fund the Connecticut Society for Mental Hygiene within two months of the publication of Beers’ autobiography. Out of deep respect, James remarked that the “truthfulness” of Beers’ autobiography convinced him that Beers would be long remembered, even beyond his own life and work.

Clifford Beers, after the publication of his book, seemed just to be starting the reform of mental health in 1908. He advocated not for simple custodial treatment of patients but a more elevated standard of care while correcting the many abuses of those experienced in the mental hospitals. He later formed the National Committee for Mental Hygiene in 1909, The American Foundation for Mental Hygiene in 1928, and later founded the International Congress for Mental Hygiene in 1930. Throughout this time, the society in which he lived labeled mental illness as a weakness, sometimes demonic, and also a moral failing that led to a kind of exile from the community and extreme isolation. Clifford Beers wanted to bring more research on psychiatric disorders, training for medical students, and raise awareness through his organizations. Yet, as he was in the middle of his trailblazing and often stressful work, his illness returned in 1939. He was admitted to a state hospital in Rhode Island, where he remained until his death in 1943.

What makes Clifford Whittingham Beers’ legacy so incredible, is that he used his own lived experience to make mental health reform and advocate for others. He was one of the first to do so without any major scientific breakthroughs in psychiatry behind him. Yet, he knew that we had to change the way we look at mental health and how we treat those in recovery. He was the first to confront great societal stigma, and even self-stigma, that may have prevented others from speaking but his own will, with a vision unwavering, for reform was stronger.  In 1950, the International Committee joined with the National Mental Health Foundation, and the Mental Health America as we know it today was born.

Today, we know the term “influencer” and how someone uses, through the touch of a button, ideas to spread quickly across the internet. But society in the 1900s could only be aware of the need for change through books and articles. Clifford Beers had to write his autobiography, A Mind That Found Itself to make people hear and understand the realities of mental health treatment. He also had to have supporters like William James, who encouraged and contributed greatly as a trustee to his newly formed organization. From Beers’ own truth and experience, he founded a reform movement that still influences many today to find appropriate mental health treatment and to support improved mental health policies across the United States.  In 1955, the Greenville Mental Health Association, now MHAGC, was created in Greenville, South Carolina because of a man like Clifford Beers.

Mental Health America of Greenville County for over 70 years is still thankful for the courage and commitment of one man’s lived experience that transformed mental health treatment. On our 70th Anniversary, we celebrate his influence and our next 70 years when there will be more individuals like Clifford Beers who will advocate and who will write their own stories out of commitment to MHAGCs mission: to help Support, Strengthen, and Save lives through services that positively impact mental health.