Mind That Found Itself

The founder of the mental hygiene movement, Clifford Whittingham Beers (1876–1943) launched one of the earliest client-advocate health reform movements in the United States. A former patient who was institutionalized for three years, Beers led national and international efforts to improve institutional care, challenge the stigma of mental illness, and promote mental health. His efforts resulted in a major shift in attitudes toward mental illness, as well as the introduction of guidance counselors in US schools and the inclusion of evidence of a defendant's psychological state in law courts.Beers was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1876, to Ida Cooke and Robert Beers. The couple suffered a series of tragedies, including the death of one child in infancy.