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Poets on Prozac: Mental Illness, Treatment, and the Creative Process | 
 enlarge | Creator: Richard M. Berlin
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy New: $10.97
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 68985
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 200
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.7 x 0.9
ISBN: 0801888395
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.89
EAN: 9780801888397
ASIN: 0801888395
Publication Date: March 25, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Review of Poets on Prozac July 4, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This review is written by Paul R. Fleischman, MD.
Poets on Prozac compiled and edited by my friend and colleague, Dr. Richard Berlin, will be of great interest to psychotherapists interested in creativity, to poets and artists, and to anyone interested in the centuries long discussion of the relationship between madness and poetry. No one is more competent than Dr. Berlin to have compiled this book, as Dr. Berlin is a well published psychiatrist and poet.
One of the strengths of this book is that it is a collection of first-person narratives written by professional writers. This not only gives it compelling force of confession, but it also helps the poets speak freely outside of the confines of scientific imposition, questionnaires or tests. The editor's excellence has been in creating a dialogical atmosphere in which his subjects and fellow investigators feel they can write with remarkable freedom. This is a book of science and courage.
Dr. Berlin provides a thought-provoking Introduction in which he discusses the relationship between psychiatric disorders and poetic creativity. Avoiding any rigid conclusions, he nevertheless points to the recurrent theme that emerges in the rest of the book. Poets who have psychiatric disorders generally benefit from psychiatric treatment. Psychiatric treatments are generally effective. Most of the poets who write chapters for this book became more creative after successful treatment. Treatment does not reduce poetic creativity and may well augment it. All of this does not answer the question about whether this group of poets would have been equally creative if they had had not psychiatric disorders in the first place. Is it the absence of psychiatric disorder, or is it good treatment of preexisting psychiatric disorder, that is the most fertile ground for creativity?
This book makes us all feel befriended and hopeful in our personal turmoil and suffering, and in our will to create.
A full length review of Poets on Prozac has been posted by Cortney Davis online on The Literature, Arts, and Medicine database. Dr. Berlin has been interviewed about his book at the site called Treatment on Line.
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