Gracefully Insane: The Rise And Fall Of America's Premier Mental Hospital (2003) - Plot & Excerpts
Alex Beam’s, “Gracefully Insane” presents a unique look at the development and history of mental health in America, framed in the focus of one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious asylums (later to be known as a mental health hospital). Narrowing his investigation to just one institution as it progresses through history provides an intimate, accessible review of mental health therapies, diagnoses, and the major players within the field.Rating: 2 stars for being well written, and comprehensive, but at times a bit dry, and overall a little sensational in its endeavor. (I'm a harsh critic.)Beam’s novel begins with the contemporary setting of McLean hospital, located in Belmont, Massachusetts, which is near to Boston. He discusses the nature of the grounds, and describes the museum located within the hospital. In so doing, he presents an argument and rationale of why McLean is an ideal window through time for examining the history of mental health. All of the items in the hospital museum have come from the hospital itself, each tracing back to the point of their origin; the hydrotherapeutic baths, electroshock devices, medicines, letters and portraits of famous physicians. From there, Beam enters the past, beginning at the hospital’s inception in 1816.The story of McLean hospital begins with a pragmatic, historical focus. As the premiere establishment for Boston’s wealthiest and well bred, it can be of little surprise that some of America’s best known authors, poets, musicians and business tycoons took up residence at one point or another. These include such persons as Robert Lowell, Anne Sexton, and Sylvia Plath, James Taylor, and Ray Charles. Because we are familiar with these people as artists, reading their stories in McLean as people help the reader to feel closer to the institution (if not, at times, slightly voyeuristic). The novel offers many other accounts based off of research and interviews. The life of Stanley McCormick, whose family was made one of the country’s wealthiest through the development and sale of the mechanical reaper, is one such example. The reader receives a short biography, including many startling details of his life-long illness, marriage, and family. The same is done of many other McLean residents throughout the hospital’s history. Of interest to readers in mental health professions, will be Beam’s account of the therapeutic developments and controversies that took place at McLean. Because of its age, the hospital lived through nearly all of the trends that struck the mental health arena. Each in turn is highlighted as it emerged in the history of the institution. Perhaps most interesting is the introduction of psychoanalysis, and the lengthy portions of the book focused on patients at McLean who had once been Freud’s clients, students, and friends. The reader becomes privy to personal letters and journal entries that shed a surprisingly personal light on Freud's character. Beam also discusses the generational changes in and factors affecting institution management. The book ends on a contemporary setting, discussing the current policies of McLean that are in accordance with the managed care systems. The note of nostalgia in Beam’s ending is unavoidable; a sense of something lost in time that policy took away. The personable nature of life at McLean has changed, because the management of it has changed. Whether this change has been for the better or worse, one cannot determine, but Beam’s writing suggests that it is likely not for the better.“Gracefully Insane” presents an interesting opportunity to view the development of mental health treatment in an entertaining, personal framework. While not without its flaws, the work is a well written to evoke the humanity of those suffering from mental illness, the scandal of professional and aristocratic indiscretions, and the poignancy of mental health profession's triumphs or failure. Because it focuses on an institution that catered to the rich and powerful, and because of certain shifting foci throughout, “Gracefully Insane” should not be taken as a definitive history of psychiatry and mental health, but rather a sampler that would entice the reader to delve deeper into those subjects of the past which interest them most.
This popular history was in many ways just what I hoped it would be: colorful, weird, informative, full of kooky tales of mentally disturbed rich and celebrated individuals. It seemed to come up a little short in a couple of areas - the writing is a little lackluster, altho there is a very cool, dry wit at work thruout. Also, the number of colorful tales of madness are not as many as one might wish, but Beam was hampered by not having access to everyone's name and record due to privacy issues.The book starts with the beginnings of the McLean Hospital and its establishment as the place for privileged Bostonians (and a few others) to check in when some real insanity developed. The author spends some time going over long-discredited therapies like hydrotherapy, full feeding, lobotomy, and others. Over time McLean changed and experienced turmoil - the 1960s was such a time there (as elsewhere), when numerous troubled, drugged up, rebellious youngsters found themselves being checked in by their worried parents. In recent years, the entire mental health business has changed and centers more now around shorter term therapies and psychopharmacology. McLean, whose bread and butter was being a dumping ground for rich families to park their most troubled members for years if necessary, has had to change too. They still exist, I think, but some of the glorious rolling lawns and brick mansion-like halls have been sold off.What is most interesting are the stories of some of the noteworthy lunies that show up, many of them suffering from mental illnesses that did not, probably still don't, have any real cure. Here are some of the great poets of the 20th century - bipolar Robert Lowell, and suicidal sirens Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, all of whom knew each other. Writer Susanna Kaysen based her book (which was turned into a successful movie) "Girl, Interrupted", on her period of treatment. The singing Taylor family - James, Livingston, and Kate - all children of a well-known doctor, were all, at one time or another, residents at McLean. One resident was a doctor's wife who stood on a hill and cast spells on the cars as they drove up to the hospital. Here is schizo Stanley McCormick, one of the richest and handsomest young men in America in the early 1900s - staggering his way thru life, unable to work successfully, too disturbed to make love to his wife, and so enamored of masturbation that he made a leather harness to keep his hands off his genitals while he slept. Another aristocratic resident was Louis Agassiz Shaw, literary and Harvard educated, the owner of a lovely mansion on Boston's North Shore. He was forced to spend the rest of his life in McLean after strangling his maid. He calmly and haughtily told the arresting officer that he did it because she was making too much noise. Another murderous member of America's aristocracy lived out her years there too: Joan Tunney Wilkinson, daughter of boxing great Gene Tunney and sister of U.S. Senator John Tunney. She, while in the throes of paranoid schizophrenia, murdered her English husband with a cleaver. Apparently a fair share of Boston's finest families have seen their relatives pass thru McLean's doors - Adamses, Lowells, Jameses. Rich crazies are not the only characters in this tale, though - some of the disturbed folks are the doctors themselves - at least 2 McLean psychiatrists were suicides, including the brilliant and popular Harvey Schein, who took his own life for unclear reasons in 1974.This is an engaging book, and even tho the subject matter is too serious for it to be strictly entertainment, it is still an informative pleasure read more than a serious study. One cannot help but think about the struggles that are depicted here, and the painful tragedy that is mental illness, and how far humanity is from truly understanding it. Still, it is good to laugh about it from time to time, and to look upon these people who were blessed with much talent and wealth, but who so lacked inner stability that they ended up in a place like McLean.
What do You think about Gracefully Insane: The Rise And Fall Of America's Premier Mental Hospital (2003)?
This was a quick and breezy read; Beam is a journalist, and his writing style is much more suited to a magazine article than a full-length book. Which is not to say the author didn't throughly research his subject; however, his narrative left a lot of details out, and the picture of McLean's is incomplete.McLean's is still known today as a rest-home/mental hospital for the well-to-do; pick up a copy of the New Yorker, and you'll find a discreet square side rail ad somewhere in its pages. It has hosted judges, bankers, elected officials, and celebrities. It has been featured in fiction and non-fiction: Girl, Interrupted, The Bell Jar, and the poetry of Anne Sexton all draw on the writers' time spend at the facility.Beam's narrative begins with a history of McLean's founding, and the building of the grounds, early benefactors, and what daily life was like for its initial cohort of patients. But after this first chapter, the construct of the book devolves. One chapter ostensibly covers the patients McLean hosted who had been analyzed by Sigmund Freud personally, but instead of exploring psychoanalysis, or how that treatment affected the patients once at McLean's, Beam simply recounts a barebones version of those patients' lives, focusing on sordid details and failing to try and understand their mental illnesses. The chapter on McLean's in the 1960s is equally shallow, without much context and little substantive detail.This book is the written equivalent of sitting down with a number of former McLean's staffers over coffee and swapping stories. I'm still curious about the institution, and this book left me with more questions than answers.
—Kate
This was an interesting book about an exclusive psychiatric hospital, that most of us would never be able to get into. That's part of what really bugged the daylights out of me about this whole book. I got part-way into the book, and started getting really perturbed, that people were getting first rate treatment, compared to the horrible conditions usually seen in the state psychiatic hospitals...because they were wealthy. It was horribly unfair. The book was too light, meaning it didn't go deep enough. With all these disturbed albeit wealthy patients, the author discussed those who committed suicide, and just barely mentioned one who murdered a servant. These seemed to be the most well-known stories. What other infractions did patients do...were there other run-ins with the law? They had schizophrenics, what about kleptomaniacs...since they allowed them to go into town relatively freely? I bet the town shopkeepers weren't crazy about that! But I'm also sure that spreading the wealth around kept things quiet. As other reviewers remarked, the writing was choppy, and I found the discussion of the science/neuroscience/psychiatry all over the place. I would have liked more information about the psychiatry used in the hospital...The main reason I picked up the book was because it talked about James Taylor and his siblings being in that hospital. The chapter on all the rock/pop stars from the 60's being in the hospital, and so many poets from the 50's and 60's being there, was fascinating to read. I really wondered why Taylor's liberal parents had to put all three of their children into 'high school' at this hospital...obviously, all the children were sensitive souls, but the parents couldn't manage any of them? This wasn't a boarding school, for heaven's sake.
—Karen
+ This book was perfect to read around Halloween! I also started it on the flight to Boston, not knowing that the mental hospital was near Boston!!+ I was the most interested in learning about the treatments - hydrotherapy, electroshock therapy, insulin induced comas, lobotomies (yeaaaa haha)+ Sylvia Plath went to McLean and I love learning about her (I've read 3 books about her life, and the Bell Jar). A few poets went to McLean and there were poetry classes. This poem stood out to me:...I feel like a periwinkleLeft too high on the beachBy the tide...What flood was itThat brought me here?- Eleanor Morris- Some of the book dragged and I was excited to finish and get it over with lol. So ready to start another book!- So many names were mentioned, it was hard to keep up!- I wish there was more of a chronicle order of events - the author tended to jump around.
—Kristin
