Asylum and Bedlam : The Anti-Psychiatric Strain In Some American Novels

The views of the anti-psychiatrists (R D Laing, Thomas Szasz) have been used to examine several novels. The novels also criticise many aspects of psychiatry. Three works of fiction are considered in detail: Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, Frederick Exley's A Fan's Notes and Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. It is shown how the anti-psychiatric strain in these novels offers an approach to modern psychiatry which is equally critical, if less formal, than the anti-psychiatric non-fiction.