Counterclockwise

by Mary Jane Ward

'This unusual novel is another brilliant, sensitive portrayal of life in a mental hospital by the author of The Snake Pit. In describing the experiences of protagonist Susan Wood, herself the author of a best seller about the horrors of life in a mental hospital, Mary Jane Ward provides an inmate's view of one of the psychiatric institutions in the Chicago area. The story of Susan's relapse and gradual recovery is quietly told, yet is powerful in its message of the relativeness of sanity and the importance of each individual's sense of his own identity.'

'The Snake Pit is generally considered one of the most accurate and moving fictional accounts of insanity. The book follows the life in an asylum of Virginia Stuart Cunningham, writer and wife, who has had a nervous breakdown. [...] Although Ward at the end applauds the ministrations of doctors, the story makes it clear that Virginia's recovery was born, shaped, and realized within her own mind.'

'Counterclockwise (1969) depicts a relapse that returns its heroine, the author of a bestselling novel about mental illness, to an expensive private hospital. The book effectively contrasts with The Snake Pit, for the heroine receives the kind of care that should have been available to Virginia Cunningham. Ward attempts to show that, properly treated, the mental patient can be fully cured and, above all, need not be feared nor rejected by society.'

250 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969