ABSTRACT
John Custance wasn't the first mental patient to write a textbook about abnormal psychology. A patient who called himself simply "A Late Inmate of the Glasgow Royal Asylum for Lunatics at Gartnavel" published The Philosophy of Insanity in Scotland in 1860. Custance's particular interest was in the nature of subjectivity. His theory of actuality reveals the logic of psychiatric symptoms and the structure of feelings. Because he had direct access to the subtleties of his own anomalous experiences, Custance could take the reader right inside feelings such as suspicion and mania. Custance scatters, amidst the many nuanced descriptions of his own symptoms, bits of autobiography. Hospitalization in a variety of psychiatric institutions is mentioned, as is foxhunting in Wiltshire at his family's country house. These tantalizing details of Custance's life add allure to his ideas, making them fresh and intriguing, even after several rereadings.
