Overview
In the middle of the Ozzie and Harriet 1950s, the birth control pill became available and a maverick psychoanalytic institute, the Sullivan Institute for Research in Psychoanalysis, opened its doors in New York City. Its founders wanted to start a revolution, one grounded in ideals of creative expression, sexual liberation, and freedom from societal norms, and the revolution needed to begin at home. Dismantling the nuclear family would free kids from the repressive forces of their parents. The movement attracted many brilliant people as patients, including the painter Jackson Pollock and a swarm of other artists, the singer Judy Collins, and the dancer Lucinda Childs. By the 1960s, it had become an urban commune of hundreds of people, with patients living with other patients, leading a creative, polyamorous life. By the mid-1970s, under the leadership of Saul Newton, it devolved from a radical communal experiment into an insular cult, with therapists controlling virtually every aspect of their patients' lives, from where they lived to how often they saw their children. Although the group was highly secretive, even after its dissolution in 1991, Alexander Stille has reconstructed the inner life of this hidden parallel world. Through countless interviews and personal papers, The Sullivanians reveals the story of a fallen utopia in the heart of New York City.
Full Product Details
Author: Alexander Stille ,
Jamie Renell
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Imprint: HighBridge Audio
ISBN: 9798212718851
Publication Date: 20 June 2023
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Audio
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
"""[A] disturbing, gripping deep dive."" -- ""Vanity Fair"" ""A brilliantly written, sobering investigation of a secret society within plain sight."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"" ""An engaging book so incredible it reads like fiction."" -- ""Washington Post Independent Review of Books"" ""Astounding...[Stille] gives us a keen bird's-eye view."" -- ""New York Times"" ""Juicy...fascinating."" -- ""New Yorker"""
Author Information
Alexander Stille is the author of Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic, Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism, The Future of the Past, The Sack of Rome: How a Beautiful European Country with a Fabled History and a Storied Culture Was Taken Over by a Man Named Silvio Berlusconi, and The Force of Things: A Marriage in War and Peace. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books and the New York Times. Jamie Renell originally hails from New England and is a rabid Red Sox fan. After graduating high school, he moved to Tallahassee, Florida, and attended Florida State University, where he received his BFA in acting. Upon graduating, Jamie moved to Atlanta to pursue his acting career in the burgeoning film community there. He has been involved in films, TV, and voice-over for more than ten years, and has credits that run the gamut, including Prison Break, Homeland, Jumanji, and Pitch Perfect, not to mention voicing nearly 200 audiobooks! He is the father to four wonderful, amazing children and husband to the most incredible woman in the world.
