Mark Twain, the Talking Cure, and Literary Form.

This article examines the significance of Mark Twain’s *Autobiography* for understanding mental health in America, emphasizing its innovative form and candid exploration of Twain’s lifelong struggles with trauma, mood disorders, and suicidality. Twain, born Samuel Clemens, crafted his autobiography through associative dictation rather than chronological narrative, reflecting his deep engagement with contemporary psychological ideas, including those of William James and the early psychoanalytic movement. The work remained unpublished for a century at Twain’s insistence, contributing to its relative obscurity despite its extensive and multifaceted content, which intertwines personal trauma, memory’s fallibility, and the complexities of self-representation amid emerging mass media and celebrity culture. Twain’s use of the pen name "Mark Twain" and his manipulation of autobiographical form reveal his nuanced negotiation of identity, authorship, and the limits of self-knowledge, positioning the autobiography as both a psychological and literary innovation.