Book : Gracefully Insane Life And Death Inside Americas...

-Titulo Original : Gracefully Insane Life And Death Inside Americas Premier Mental Hospital

-Fabricante :

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-Descripcion Original:

Its landscaped ground, chosen by Frederick Law Olmsted and dotted with Tudor mansions, could belong to a New England prep school. There are no fences, no guards, no locked gates. But McLean Hospital is a mental institution-one of the most famous, most elite, and once most luxurious in America. McLean alumni include Olmsted himself, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, James Taylor and Ray Charles, as well as (more secretly) other notables from among the rich and famous. In its golden age, McLean provided as genteel an environment for the treatment of mental illness as one could imagine. But the golden age is over, and a downsized, downscale McLean-despite its affiliation with Harvard University-is struggling to stay afloat. Gracefully Insane, by Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam, is a fascinating and emotional biography of McLean Hospital from its founding in 1817 through today. It is filled with stories about patients and doctors: the Ralph Waldo Emerson protg whose brilliance disappeared along with his madness; Anne Sextons poetry seminar, and many more. The story of McLean is also the story of the hopes and failures of psychology and psychotherapy; of the evolution of attitudes about mental illness, of approaches to treatment, and of the economic pressures that are making McLean-and other institutions like it-relics of a bygone age. This is a compelling and often oddly poignant reading for fans of books like Plaths The Bell Jar and Susanna Kaysens Girl, Interrupted (both inspired by their authors stays at McLean) and for anyone interested in the history of medicine or psychotherapy, or the social history of New England. Review Touching, humorous, illuminating--in short, irresistible. -- Chicago Tribune [Beam] elicits fascinating stories from both residents and staff...[and]...has nicely traced the history of this institution and its inhabitants. -- Entertainment Weekly About the Author Alex Beam is a columnist for the Boston Globe and for the International Herald Tribune. He is the author of two works of nonfiction, Gracefully Insane and A Great Idea at the Time, both New York Times Notable Books. He has also written for the Atlantic Monthly, Slate, and Forbes/FYI. He lives in Newton, Massachusetts with his wife and three sons.