Who Is Clifford Whittingham Beers Afflicted?

Clifford Whittingham Beers was born on March 30, 1876 to Ida Cooke Bears (mother) and Robert A. Beers. Clifford died on July 9, 1943. He was the second youngest of five children. Beers attended local public schools where he performed at the highest level. (Dain, 1980) During the early years Beers was faced with many different challenges. Most of those challenges, in which, young children should not have to go through. Beers came from a family in which sickness was very dominant and present from an early age. The Beers family was known to have some form of mental illness that was discovered at a very young age in their children and before them. Mental illness had occurred in the family before with Beers mother and an aunt. It started with …show more content…
He saw how his other brothers and sisters were and he did not want to become that way. This is when he started to suffer from depression. According to Norman Dain’s biography, Clifford W. Beers, Advocate for the Insane. And the idea that he might also be struck ill haunted him. Beers wrote: “…if a brother who had enjoyed perfect health all his life could be stricken with epilepsy, what was to prevent my being similarly afflicted? This was the thought that soon got possession of my mind. The more I considered it, the more nervous I became and the more nervous I became, the more convinced that my own breakdown was only a matter of time. Doomed to what I then considered a living death…” (Beers, 1908. 5) After this, Beers tried to commit suicide but he was not successful. This incident causes him to be placed in a Connecticut mental institution. (Dain, 1980) The experience in this mental institution was not a good one. During his time of hospitalization, Beers would imagine that he was held hostage in prison for murders that he did not commit. Clifford believed that the doctors and the attendants were trying to …show more content…
He made it possible for those that were in these mental institutions to be treated fairly. Many people may think that just because they are in a mental institution that they do not deserve to be treated fairly. Beers had a different perspective because he was once in their shows and he experienced everything for himself. Clifford became an advocate for the mental ill. He wanted to help individuals obtain their rights, services, benefits and opportunities that they need and those that they were entitled to. During this time, there were limited social programs. The funds for these programs were very low or not in