Poets on Prozac: Mental Illness, Treatment, and the Creative Process »

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.

Poets on Prozac shatters the notion that madness fuels creativity by giving voice to contemporary poets who have battled myriad psychiatric disorders, including depression, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance abuse.

The sixteen essays collected here address many provocative questions: Does emotional distress inspire great work? Is artistry enhanced or diminished by mental illness? What effect does substance abuse have on esthetic vision? Do psychoactive medications impinge on ingenuity? Can treatment enhance inherent talents, or does relieving emotional pain shut off the creative process?

Featuring examples of each contributor's poetry before, during, and after treatment, this original and thoughtful collection finally puts to rest the idea that a tortured soul is one's finest muse.

Publishers Weekly

Beginning with the premise that "poets are among the most fearless of writers when it comes to self-revelation," poet and psychiatrist Berlin (How JFK Killed My Father) examines the ambiguous, age-old relationship between writing and madness by asking leading contemporary poets to discuss psychiatric treatment and their work. The result is a fascinating collection of 16 essays, as insightful as they are compulsively readable. Each is honest and sharply written, covering a range of issues (depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, psychosis, substance abuse or, in acutely deadpan Andrew Hudgins's case, "tics, twitches, allergies, tooth-grinding, acid reflux, migraines...

and shingles") along with treatment methods, incorporating personal anecdotes and excerpts from poems and journals. Though they dwell in the darker corners of the creative process-frustration, anxiety, isolation-each contributor carries a measure of the joy Gwyneth Lewis felt at age seven, when she wrote her first poem: "This activity made me happier than anything I knew." It's a sentiment that both haunts and inspires: after 12 years without writing, medical doctor Jack Coulehan found in the "healing power of language" the key to lifting lifelong chronic anxiety. Medication is a trickier subject. Though it's an undisputable help, the difficulty in finding the right "cocktail" of pills and the array of side effects-for Chase Twichell it turns off her "metaphor-making faculty" like a spigot-make it a painful challenge.

Anyone affected by mental illness or intrigued by the question of its role in the arts should find this volume absorbing.

Contents List of Contributors....................ix
Acknowledgments....................xiii
Introduction, Richard M. Berlin....................1
ONE Dark Gifts, Gwyneth Lewis....................13
TWO The Desire to Think Clearly, J. D. Smith....................23
THREE A Crab, an Eggplant, a Tree, a Goldfish, a Cow, an Apple, a Candle: A Therapist, Denise Duhamel....................32
FOUR Perfecting the Art of Falling, Thomas Krampf....................39
FIVE My Name Is Not Alice, Ren Powell....................51
SIX My Oldest Voice, Jesse Millner....................60
SEVEN How I Learned to Count to Four and Live with the Ghosts of Animals, Vanessa Haley....................69
EIGHT The Uses of Depression: The Way Around Is Through, David Budbill....................80
NINE In the Middle of Life's Journey, Jack Coulehan....................92
TEN Basic Heart: Depression and the Ordinary, Renée Ashley....................105
ELEVEN Food for Thought, Caterina Eppolito....................117
TWELVE From Bog to Crystal, Barbara F. Lefcowitz....................129
THIRTEEN In the Country of Motherhood, Martha Silano....................139
FOURTEEN Down the Tracks: Bruce Springsteen Sang to Me, Liza Porter....................147
FIFTEEN Chemical Zen, Andrew Hudgins....................161
SIXTEEN Psychopharmacology and Its Discontents, Chase Twichell....................172
About the Editor....................183
Permissions....................184