Autobiographical reports of the experience of being mentally ill fall into two categories. First there are the straightforward subjective accounts of which Schreber's Memoirs is a classic example. In the second category are those writings in which the case report is secondary to the author's wish to express his views concerning the nature of his illness, and often of mental illness in general. These are invariably based on the fallacy that being ill somehow endows one with the knowledge to speak with authority concerning the etiology and therapy of the disorder from which he suffers. In Search of Sanity, The Journal of a Schizophrenic falls clearly into the second category.

'It is not easy to heal a madman', says the author, 'so a madman who has been healed owes it to himself and to his fellows to come forth and tell his story'. The story, which is told with evangelical fervor, is simple and unequivocal: schizophrenia is a physiological and spiritual disorder which can be cured by the administration