In his 1986 collection Demon Box, Kesey reflects on his experiences as a member of the counterculture during the 1960s and 1970s.

J. D. Salinger's classic novel of teenage rebellion, The Catcher in the Rye (1951), narrates how sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield defies everything he perceives as fake in upper-middle-class society of the 1940s.

The semiautobiographical novel The Bell Jar (1963), written by poet Sylvia Plath, follows protagonist Esther Greenwood's struggle with depression as she tries to find her place in a society that confines women's roles to being wives and mothers.

Nobody Nowhere (1992) is Donna Williams's compelling autobiography about growing up autistic—unable to process emotions typically—and learning how to connect with the outside world.

Mary Jane Ward's influential 1946 novel The Snake Pit recounts a young woman's year-long treatment in a mental hospital. The book inspired a 1948 film of the same name, starring Olivia de Havilland, which subsequently led to legislative changes in mental health treatment in several states.