Personal Writings and Oral History: Patients
Discussion of medical treatment and illness is often embedded in general diaries, autobiographies etc. These works can be searched full text for medical terms in the digital libraries. See also the general pages on Oral History and on Personal Writings in the Library Research Guide for History.
In the HOLLIS Catalog several Subject terms refer to personal writings. Combine topical keywords with the words: Interviews, diaries, narratives, biography (includes autobiographies):
Examples of Subject Terms
- Breast -- Cancer -- Patients -- Interviews
- Breast -- Cancer -- Patients -- United States -- Biography
- Breast cancer patients' writings, American
- Breast -- Cancer -- Patients -- United States -- Diaries
- Coronary heart disease -- Personal narratives
- Heart diseases in women -- Personal narratives
- Sick -- Personal narratives [means sick persons]
Example HOLLIS Searches:
Oral History Online indexes oral history collections, with links to interview-level bibliographic records and to full-text materials.
HistoryMakers: An African American oral video history archive. Search a disease. The display gives you the portion of the transcript in which your search words occur.
Bibliographies
Narratives and Illness: Select Bibliography
Recovering bodies : illness, disability, and life writing, by G. Thomas Couser. Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press, 1997, 314 p.
HOLLIS Records (Print and online)
--Bibliography, p. 299-310, includes narratives and secondary works.
Reconstructing illness: studies in pathography, by Anne Hunsaker Hawkins. West Lafayette, Ind. : Purdue University Press, 1993, 217 p.
HOLLIS Record
Internet Archive Full Text
--Appendix (pp. 163-175) is a bibliography, classed by disease, of illness narratives published 1963-1993
The Patient's Tale: An Annotated Bibliography of Autopathographies, by J K Aronson
Hornstein, G. A. 2013. Bibliography of First-Person Narratives of Madness. 5th ed.
First-person accounts in the historiography of psychiatry
General Sources for Diaries and Autobiographies
Some of the references in the books below will be to merely brief mentions of illnesses, but they offer access to earlier sources.
American diaries: an annotated bibliography of published American diaries and journals, by Laura Arksey. 2 v. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research, 1983, 1987.
LOCATION: Widener: RR 3623.18.15 (Loker Reading Room, Widener 2nd floor)
Internet Archive full text: Vol. 1 -- Vol. 2.
--Arranged chronologically with name (author and subject person), subject, and geographical indexes. Includes diaries published as periodical articles.
--See Index (vol. 2) under Illness (pp. p 455-456) and Hospitals (p. 455). Index lists only the entry number for each work: 1850 starts with no. 3202; 1900 with 5367, 1950 with 5813
American autobiography, 1945-1980: a bibliography. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982.
LOCATION: Schlesinger: Ref. 016.92 B85a
LOCATION: Widener: RR 1712.6.4
Internet Archive full text
--Arranged by author, with name and detailed subject index. Subject index includes terms and names(!) not in the entry annotations.
--See index: Illness (296-297). Broken down by disease.
First person female American: a selected and annotated bibliography of the autobiographies of American women living after 1950. Troy, NY: Whitston Pub. Co., 1980.
LOCATION: Widener: WID-LC HQ1412.Z99 F57 x
Internet Archive Full Text
--List of Topics of Interest to Women’s Studies keyed to entries. Index: Mental health (p. 399), Sickness (p. 402) - General index entry only.
Through a woman's I: an annotated bibliography of American women's autobiographical writings, 1946-1976, by Patricia K Addis. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1983.
LOCATION: Widener: WID-LC CT3260.Z99 A32 x, 1983
Internet Archive full text
Index: Illness/Handicap (p. 573), Mental illness/Hospitalization (p. 573) - General index enties only.
The published diaries and letters of American women: an annotated bibliography, by Joyce D. Goodfriend. Boston, Mass.: G.K. Hall, 1987.
LOCATION: Schlesinger: Ref. 016.92 G651p
LOCATION: Widener: RR 3623.18.18
Internet Archive full text
--Arranged chronologically with name and (broad) subject indexes. Geographic entries under “Locality” in the Subject index.
--Index: Illness, Invalidism (p. 223)
A bibliography of American autobiographies, by Louis Kaplan. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1961.
LOCATION: Baker Business: Z1224.K3
LOCATION: Schlesinger: Ref. 016.92 K17b
LOCATION: Widener: RR 1712.6
Internet Archive full text -- Another copy
--Arranged by author, with name/subject index. Subject index contains largely occupations (includes “Immigrants”). Subject entries are repeated under broad geographic categories (e.g., South Atlantic).
--Index: Illnesses, accounts of (p. 344)'
A guide to finding additional diaries and autobiographies is available in Finding Biographical Information.
Database
Litmed: Literature Arts Medicine Database includes narratives as well as literary works.