Click a book or video within a section to read about or buy it at Amazon.com
This section is devoted to derangement of the senses: madness, dreams, intoxication, or mystic states.
A related metagallery of web links and resources is here
The rating system used is as follows:
5 Melted Elephants: Mind-bogglingly excellent. All that will remain of your elephant will be a bubbling grey liquid.
4 Melted Elephants: Truly remarkable. The eyes looking out from the seething mass which was your elephant will alarm small children.
3 Melted Elephants: Interesting and worthwhile. Your elephant's features will swirl as though the world were the reflection in a glassy lake.
2 Melted Elephants: Has redeeming features. Your elephant will be sticky to the touch.
1 Melted Elephant: Not up to snuff. If you even attempt to test the consistency of your elephant it may trample you or turn away in disgust.
Adolf Wolfli : Draftsman, Writer, Poet, Composer (Cornell Studies in he History of Psychiatry)
by Adolf Wolfli, Elka Spoerri (Editor), Daniel Baumann
5 Melted Elephants
I think Wolfli is one of the greatest 20th Century artists. He was also completely insane.
Madness and Art : The Life and Works of Adolf Wolfli
by Walter Morgenthaler, Aaron Esman (Translator), Walter Morganthaler
4 Melted Elephants
This fascinating if overpriced book is notable for having been authored by Wolfli's doctor at the hospital in which he was incarcerated, and for its description of Wolfli's writings and ideation, including his invention of a whole class of ridiculously high numbers.
The Discovery of the Art of the Insane
by John M. MacGregor
4 Melted Elephants
A history of the fairly recent and half-hearted notice given to the remarkable art of the insane, containing many fascinating illustrations and much text [of sometimes variable interest].
Outsider Art
by Jean-Louis Ferrier
5 Melted Elephants
A well-illustrated book from a wide range of extraordinary and most often schizophrenic artists, with interesting biographical information.
The End Is Near! : Visions of Apocalypse, Millennium and Utopia
by Stephen Jay Gould, Roger Manley, Adam Parfrey, Dalai Lama, Rebecca Hoffberger, Howard Finster
4 Melted Elephants
This eccentric compilation includes art by naives, outsiders, and schizophrenics as well as some who seem post-Surrealist, almost all of it interesting and strange.
Aurelia and Other Writings
by Gerard De Nerval, Geoffrey Wagner (Translator), Robert Duncan (Translator)
4 Melted Elephants
This volume by the talented poet and author Nerval, an influence on the Surrealists - known for walking his pet lobster on a leash among other eccentricities - includes his own account of his schizophrenia.
Memoirs of My Nervous Illness
by Daniel Paul Schreber
4 Melted Elephants
This long and incredibly strange first-person account by a schizophrenic influenced the thinking of Freud and the Surrealists
Autobiography of a Schizophrenic Girl : The True Story of 'Renee'
by Marguerite Sechehaye (Contributor), Grace Rubin-Rabson (Translator)
3 Melted Elephants
Schizophrenic accounts demonstrate that the spectrum of human experience extends beyond the range of what we normally see.
When the Music's over : My Journey into Schizophrenia
by Richard, Dr Gates (Editor), Robin Hammond (Editor), David Burke, Ross D. Burke
2 Melted Elephants
The beginning seemed too much like a not-overly-clear reminiscence of his life as a hippie, but his story grew on me and made me re-evaluate it as his illness progressed.
Is There No Place on Earth for Me?
by Susan Sheehanhe
4 Melted Elephants
Another fascinating first-person account by a hospitalized schizophrenic, this one including some telling indictments of the hospital system.
Varieties of Religious Experience
by William James, Reinhold Niebuhr (Introduction)
5 Melted Elephants
A great book, one of whose main strengths is its marshaling and inclusion of a wealth of first-person accounts.
Mysticism : The Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness
by Evelyn Underhill
5 Melted Elephants
An excellent survey of mysticism as an experience, with many first-person accounts.
Shamanic Voices : A Survey of Visionary Narratives
by Joan Halifax
5 Melted Elephants
Truly amazing first-person narratives from shamans of different cultures.
What They Saw...at the Hour of Death : A New Look at Evidence for Life After Death
by Karlis Osis, Erlendur Haraldsson, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (Introduction), Erlendur Haraldsson Ph. D. (Contributor)
4 Melted Elephants
Osis is my favorite of the writers in the new genre of near-death experience. He writes with a great clarity and conveys a feeling of objectivity. While like other writers on the subject he makes what I find to be unwarranted inferences about an afterlife, he does present fascinating evidence of a tendency to remarkable and significant visions experienced by many near death.
The Varieties of Psychedelic Experience : The Classic Guide to the Effects of LSD on the Human Psyche
by Robert Masters, Jean. Houston
5 Melted Elephants
Clearly influenced by William James' great work referenced above, the strength of this book like its model is its inclusion of a wealth of extraordinary first-person accounts.
High Priest
by Timothy Leary
4 Melted Elephants
First person accounts of LSD trips, illustrated with varied but sometimes remarkable psychedelic art
Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming
by Stephen Laberge, Howard Rheingold (Contributor)
3 Melted Elephants
Lucid dreaming is dreaming with awareness that one is dreaming, allowing one some control of the dream. This interesting and useful book left me wishing for a stronger emphasis on the fascinating first-person accounts.
Memories, Dreams, Reflections
by Carl Gustav Jung
4 Melted Elephants
A kind of autobiography of this great thinker, fascinating among other things for his descriptions of his own mystical and psychic/synchronistic experiences.
Dreams.
by Carl Gustav Jung, R. F. Hull (Translator)
5 Melted Elephants
By far the most interesting discussion of dreams I've read, with many good dream accounts and analyses.