Alex Beam
Gracefully Insane: the Rise and Fall of America's Premier Mental Hospital

Boston Public Library, Rabb Hall
700 Boylston Street, Boston
No tickets are required.

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 protégé 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, and of the evolution of attitudes about mental illness and approaches to treatment.