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Kenneth Donaldson Archives for the Autobiographies of Psychiatric Survivors

Statement of Purpose:

One day there will be archives of psychiatric abuses similar to the archives that now document Holocaust atrocities. This Archives exists to provide psychiatric survivors with a place to preserve for future generations the unpublished autobiographies of their experiences.

The Archives was founded in 1980 when Ken Donaldson, author of Insanity Inside Out and Al Siebert, author of Peaking Out: How My Mind Broke Free from the Delusions in Psychiatry, discovered that many psychiatric survivors have written manuscripts about their experiences but are rarely successful in getting their books published.

In 1995, the Archives was renamed the Kenneth Donaldson Archives for the Autobiographies of Psychiatric Survivors. The name change honors the memory of Kenneth Donaldson, who died in January, 1995. Donaldson, a patients' rights advocate, was famous for winning a U.S. Supreme Court case awarding him $40,000 in damages for being held twelve years in a Florida State Mental Hospital without treatment.

The Archives is a repository, it does not publish books. It will not release the names of persons submitting stories without written permission and only at a specific future date. Anyone submitting a manuscript retains all rights and controls the time of release of the information.

There is no fee, although contributions to support the Archives are accepted. The plan for the distant future is to donate the archives, along with an endowment for their preservation, to the Mark O. Hatfield library at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.

If you need some assistance in getting started writing about your experience, Rhea A. White has posted a web page entitled How to Write an Exceptional Human Experience Autobiography which is filled with useful information about how and what to tap in yourself for insight.

GUIDELINES

When sending a book manuscript please provide the following information:

1. Your name and address (or some way to contact you).
2. The month, day, and year when the autobiography can be available to researchers, journalists and others.
3. Indicate if a future researcher can quote you by name or if you prefer to remain anonymous.
4. Optional: Include the name and address of family members that a historian, journalist, or researcher could contact in future years.

Send to: Archives, P.O. Box 535, Portland, OR 97207, USA.

For questions or more information about the Kenneth Donaldson Archives for the Autobiographies of Psychiatric Survivors, email Al Siebert, PhD now.

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