Poets on Prozac

Richard M. Berlin, M.D., is an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts, a psychiatrist in private practice, and a published poet. He writes a monthly poetry column for Psychiatric Times and is the author of How JFK Killed My Father, a collection of poems about illness and the healing arts.

A fascinating collection of 16 essays, as insightful as they are compulsively readable. Publishers Weekly (starred review) 2008 All agree that the sick brain often spells catastrophe for the creative mind. New York Times 2008 The book shows that good poets also write vigorous, engaging prose. Richard Berlin has done a marvelous job of showing us how ordinary poets are; the selected poets have shown us that mental illness shares with other experiences a capacity to reveal our humanity. Metapsychology 2008 At once instructive and poignant, Poets on Prozac constitutes an important addition to the literature on creativity and mental illness... An illuminating read both for mental health professionals who work with creative people and for artists who are contemplating treatment options. New England Journal of Medicine 2008 This book belongs on the shelves of all therapists who treat women and men who immerse themselves in creative writing or any other fine art. Dr. Berlin's pithy introduction provides a useful summary of the relationship between creativity and emotional disorder. The 16 essays and the poetic excerpts that bolster them share the virtues of being heartfelt, accessible, and brief. They can be read by highly literate women and men, even those in the midst of an emotional maelstrom. American Journal of Psychiatry 2008 Each essayist (and the book as a whole) certainly has an audience, most faithfully in poets. -- Roxanna Font Bellevue Literary Review 2008 This collection of brilliant essays does not resolve the relative contribution that medication (ranging from SSRIs to orthomolecular treatment) makes to the resolution of a creative person's fallow periods and blocks. Like the creative process itself, the picture that emerges is idiosyncratic and, perhaps, understood better as an appreciation than as analysis. Choice The book's claim to uniqueness lies chiefly in the character of the authors and the poetry with which they express their feelings. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 2009 In providing these poets with a voice in prose, Richard M. Berlin, himself both a healer and an artist, provides telling insights into both mental illness and the creative process. -- Harvey Fenigsohn Lamar Soutter Library Book Reviews 2008 Endlessly fascinating. -- Brooke Allen Hudson Review 2008 This collection of essays would be particularly useful to psychiatrists who have patients from the creative world of literature but I believe also from music, fine art or theatre. British Journal of Psychiatry 2009 Through the words of poets, this book celebrates the idea that health is not an end point-and that healing is a lifelong process. -- Dagan Coppock, MD Psychiatric Times 2009

• List of Contributors AcknowledgmentsIntroductions, Richard M. Berlin1. Dark Gifts, Gwyneth Lewis2. The Desire to Think Clearly, J. D. Smith3. A Crab, an Eggplant, a Tree, a Goldfish, a Cow, an Apple, a Candle: A Therapist, Demise Duhamel4. Perfecting the Art of Falling, Thoman Krampf5. My Name Is Not Alice, Ren Powell6. My Oldest Voice, Jesse Millner7. How I Learned to Count to Four and LIve with the Ghosts of Animals, Vanessa Haley8. The Uses of Depression: The Way Around Is Through, David Budbill9. In the Middle of Life's Journety, Jack Coulehan10. Basic Heart: Depression and the Ordinary, Renee Ashley11. Food for Thought, Caterina Eppolito12. From Bog to Crystal, Barbara F. Lefcowitz13. In the Country of Motherhood, Martha Silano14. Down the Tracks: Bruce Springsteen Sang to Me, Liza Porter15. Chemical Zen, Andrew Hudgins16. Psychopharmacology and Its Discontents, Chase TwichellAbout the EditorPermissions