平衡的声音和《一颗找回自我的心灵》的主旨毫无疑问地增加了它的力量。Robert Coles 曾建议到它也是一部文风有艺术质量的作品，从而使它有如此的效果。在1980年版本的序言里，Coles说道大多数揭发事实“唤起同情…或者也许是一种客观的理解，但是都没法比得上像这部能使道义上的敏感性拓宽的艺术作品那样引起更大的反应。”
Clifford Beers: The Origins of Modern Mental Health Policy
An Essay by Michael B. Friedman, CSW
First published in The Mental Health News, Fall 2002
Beers' Success Began with His Autobiography, A Mind That Found Itself
Beers' success in developing a national, and ultimately an international movement, began with his autobiography, A Mind That Found Itself. He hoped that it would have an impact on the scale of Uncle Tom's Cabin. In it he traced the course of his illness. He was a graduate of Yale University at the beginning of a promising career in business when he developed an obsessive fear of mental collapse subsequent to the death of a brother from epilepsy. His despair became so great that he attempted suicide. This led to the terrible years he spent in private, voluntary and state hospitals in Connecticut and eventually to his recovery and his determination to reform the treatment of people with mental illnesses.
Although there had been other exposés before Beers', none had the impact that Beers' account did. Norman Dain, Beers' biographer, comments,
"…other exposés…described treatment in asylums as cruel and inhumane, but most went beyond credulity, so that they were not effective propaganda…".
Beers' autobiography has the ring of truth and reason. While exposing abuses, he revealed a great deal about his inner suffering and confusion and about his provocative behavior when he was in the hospital. He condemns the abusive behavior of attendants and lack of supervision exerted by the physicians who should have helped to protect him and other patients who could not comply with dehumanizing hospital routines, but he also acknowledged his own illness and showed considerable respect for the physicians' knowledge and abilities.
The balanced voice and substance of A Mind That Found Itself unquestionably contributes to its power. Robert Coles has suggested that it is also the artistic quality of the writing that makes it so effective. In the Preface to the 1980 edition, Coles says that most exposés "prompt compassion…and maybe a kind of clinical understanding, but not the larger response that a work of art commands-a broadened moral sensibility."
A Mind That Found Itself is, unquestionably, morally compelling. Most people who read it feel horrified by the suffering it reveals and are moved to help to humanize our society's actions towards people with serious mental illnesses.
Beers Attracted Prominent Supporters for His Cause
From the beginning Beers was able to attract very prominent supporters. The first was William James, the most important psychologist of his day and one of the founders of American philosophical pragmatism. James helped to open many doors for Beers prior to the publication of the autobiography, including to his publisher and to a number of people who had the resources to help to found a movement. In addition, Beers won pre-publication interest from Adolph Meyer, one of the most prominent psychiatrists of the era. While Meyer-who ran a psychiatric hospital-was disturbed by some of Beers' most troubling allegations about hospitals, he too believed that hospitals needed substantial reform and recognized that Beers had the potential to generate the kind of public support that was needed to bring reform about. He and Beers formed a partnership which gave the National Committee on Mental Hygiene its initial directions.
Beers combined a number of leadership characteristics that were essential to the success of the National Committee on Mental Hygiene and of the state and local societies that it spawned.
He had a clear, powerful vision.
He had remarkable ability to communicate in writing and face-to-face.
He had unending determination to realize his vision even at considerable personal cost. (He ran up a significant personal debt to get the National Committee going.)
He had the flexibility to compromise when he had to in order to forge and preserve alliances, but he also had the courage to stick to his own views when he thought it was critical.
He had sharp business acumen. And he understood that an enterprise of the magnitude that he imagined could not be the work of one man. From the start his goal was to build a unified advocacy community.
He knew that he needed the moral and financial commitment of prominent lay people and that he also needed the support of the most highly regarded mental health professionals-particularly physicians. The laypeople and mental health professionals who joined Beers in the development and expansion of the mental health movement were a veritable who's who of America.(to be continued)