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Clifford Whittingham Beers (March 30, 1876 - July 9, 1943) was the American founder of the mental hygiene (now known as mental health) movement.

Beers was born in New Haven, Connecticut to Ida C. (Cooke) and Robert Anthony Beers, and graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale in 1897. In 1900, after suffering a mental breakdown, he was confined to an asylum for three years. After his recovery he wrote the harrowing, classic autobiography, A Mind that Found Itself (1908), a book that aroused a storm of protest and public concern about care of people with mental illness. In the eyes of many the modern mental movement can be traced to this publication. From this point onwards, he had the support of the medical profession and others in the work to prevent mental disorders.

In 1908, Beers founded the Connecticut Society for Mental Hygiene, in 1909 the National Committee for Mental Hygiene (in 1950 it was recognised as the National Association for Mental Health in the USA) and in 1931 the International Foundation for Mental Health Hygiene. Not content with enhancing the mental health movement in North America, Clifford Beers was instrumental in developments in a number of the European countries, expending both this own time and finance in assisting national mental health organisations to become firmly established.

In a period of history when communications were extremely restricted the efforts and perhaps more importantly the success of Clifford Beers are difficult to fully appreciate. He was a leader in the field until his retirement in 1939. He died in 1943.

External links

• Works by Clifford Whittingham Beers at Project Gutenberg