This dynamic and richly layered account of mental health in the late twentieth century interweaves three important stories: the rising political prominence of mental health in the United States since 1970; the shifting medical diagnostics of mental health at a time when health activists, advocacy groups, and public figures were all speaking out about the needs and rights of patients; and the concept of voice in literature, film, memoir, journalism, and medical case study that connects the health experiences of individuals to shared stories.

Together, these three dimensions bring into conversation a diverse cast of late-century writers, filmmakers, actors, physicians, politicians, policy-makers, and social critics. In doing so, Martin Halliwell’s Voices of Mental Health breaks new ground in deepening our understanding of the place, politics, and trajectory of mental health from the moon landing to the millennium. 
 

MARTIN HALLIWELL is a professor of American studies at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. He is the author or editor of twelve books, including Therapeutic Revolutions: Medicine, Psychiatry, and American Culture, 1945–1970 (Rutgers University Press).

"Professor Halliwell breaks new ground in understanding the place, politics, and trajectory of mental health from the moon landing to the millennium"

"Topics include the voices of patients and former patients in survivor narratives, and through advocacy and support groups."

"In this gracefully argued, erudite study, Martin Halliwell places the complex issue of mental health at the centre of the history of the decades since Jimmy Carter’s Commission on Mental Health in 1977. It is a model of interdisciplinary scholarship, equally at home with federal public health policy and the cultural politics of identity and community."

“Voices of Mental Health is a terrific contribution to the areas of contemporary American literature and culture, federal policy studies, and literature and medicine. Halliwell provides an impressive, vast amount of research.”