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Gracefully Insane

The Rise and Fall of America's Premier Mental Hospital

By: Alex Beam

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Paperback | 1 January 2003 | Edition Number 1

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Paperback
296 Pages

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1.7 x 13.9 x 21

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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 prot'g' whose brilliance disappeared along with his madness; Anne Sexton's 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 Plath's The Bell Jar and Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted (both inspired by their author's stays at McLean) and for anyone interested in the history of medicine or psychotherapy, or the social history of New England.

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Psychology Abnormal Psychology Medicine Medicine in General History of Medicine Health Systems & Services Mental Health Services Other Branches of Medicine Clinical Psychology History

A Visit to the Museum of the Cures	p. 1
By the Best People, for the Best People	p. 17
The Mayflower Screwballs	p. 35
The Country Clubbers	p. 49
The Search for the Cure	p. 73
The Talk Cure: Freud and Man at Mclean	p. 93
Welcome to the Twentieth Century	p. 117
The Mad Poets' Society	p. 145
Staying On: The Elders from Planet Upham	p. 169
Diagnosis: "Hippiephrenia"	p. 191
Physician, Heal Thyself	p. 217
Life Goes On	p. 233
Acknowledgments	p. 245
Notes on Sources	p. 249
Index	p. 257
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

Gracefully Insane

The Rise and Fall of America's Premier Mental Hospital

At a Glance

Paperback

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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