Review of Reluctantly told

Abstract

Reviews the book, Reluctantly told by Jane Hillyer (1926). Miss Hillyer, the sane, intelligent person, is able to stand aside from herself, as it were, and view Miss Hillyer, the psychopath, almost as objectively as though she were viewing someone else. But the sane Miss Hillyer remembers so vividly many of the mental experiences of the insane Miss Hillyer that she is able to give the reader the subjective as well as the objective view. The reviewer notes that this is a rather awkward way of saying that she is able to describe the experience of going crazy without indulging in self-pity or hysterics about herself. Her account includes much that the serious student of mental pathology would wish to know--something of her heredity, much of her childhood and early home environment, the breakdown, her hospital experience, long periods of oblivion, an attempt at suicide, returning interests and activities, the return to her own world while yet but precariously balanced, and the long hopeful struggle that, one infers, is still going on to remain normally healthy minded. The writer displays a keen insight into the causes of her trouble, and more particularly the factors entering into her restoration to mental health. The reviewer reports that she has a very unusual and very interesting story to tell. She tells it beautifully, simply, and with a touching restraint. Neither confessing nor boasting, she merely relates, and it is in this objective viewpoint that much of the value of the work lies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)