author
Robert S. (Robert Sproul) Carroll
1869–1949
A physician and medical writer, he explored mental and spiritual suffering in plainspoken books shaped by years of psychiatric practice. He is also remembered as the founder of Highland Hospital in Asheville, where he promoted treatment built around exercise, diet, and purposeful activity.
1 Audiobook
Our Nervous Friends — Illustrating the Mastery of Nervousness
by Robert S. (Robert Sproul) Carroll
About the author
Born in 1869, Robert Sproul Carroll was an American psychiatrist and author whose work joined medical concerns with questions of inner life and endurance. His books include Our Nervous Friends and The Soul in Suffering, both published in 1919, and they reflect his interest in helping readers understand nervous illness, suffering, and recovery.
Carroll founded what began as Dr. Carroll's Sanatorium in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1904. The institution later became Highland Hospital, a residential psychiatric hospital known for Carroll's emphasis on exercise, diet, occupational therapy, and outdoor activity as part of treatment.
In 1939 he gave Highland Hospital to Duke University, and he remained involved there until retiring in 1946. He died in 1949, leaving behind a body of writing that connects early twentieth-century psychiatry with a practical, humane style of self-help and reflection.