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Best Minds: How Allen Ginsberg Made Revolutionary Poetry from Madness
A revelatory look at how poet Allen Ginsberg transformed experiences of mental illness and madness into some of the most powerful and widely read poems of the twentieth century.
Allen Ginsberg's 1956 poem "Howl" opens with one of the most resonant phrases in modern poetry: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness." Thirty years later, Ginsberg entrusted a Columbia University medical student with materials not shared with anyone else, including psychiatric records which documented how he and his mother, Naomi Ginsberg, struggled with mental illness.
In Best Minds, psychiatrist, researcher, and scholar Stevan M. Weine, M.D., who was that medical student, examines how Allen Ginsberg took his visions and psychiatric hospitalization, his mother's devastating illness, confinement, and lobotomy, and the social upheavals of the post-war world and imaginatively transformed them.
Though madness is often linked with hardship and suffering, Ginsberg showed how it could also lead to profound and redemptive aesthetic, spiritual, and social changes. Through his revolutionary poetry and social advocacy, Ginsberg dedicated himself to leading others toward new ways of being human and easing pain.
Throughout his celebrated career Ginsberg's writings and most public life made us feel as though we knew everything there was to know about him. However, much has been left out about his experiences growing up with a mentally ill mother, his visions, and his psychiatric hospitalization.
In Best Minds, with a forty-year career studying and addressing trauma, Weine provides a groundbreaking exploration of the poet and his creative process especially in relation to madness.
Best Minds examines the complex relationships between mental illness, psychiatry, trauma, poetry, and prophecy--using the access Ginsberg generously shared to offer new, lively and indispensable insights into an American icon. Weine also provides new understandings of the paternalism, treatment failures, ethical lapses, and limitations of American psychiatry of the 1940s and 1950s.
In light of these new discoveries, the challenges Ginsberg faced appear starker and his achievements, both as a poet and an advocate, are even more remarkable.
Allen Ginsberg's 1956 poem "Howl" opens with one of the most resonant phrases in modern poetry: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness." Thirty years later, Ginsberg entrusted a Columbia University medical student with materials not shared with anyone else, including psychiatric records which documented how he and his mother, Naomi Ginsberg, struggled with mental illness.
In Best Minds, psychiatrist, researcher, and scholar Stevan M. Weine, M.D., who was that medical student, examines how Allen Ginsberg took his visions and psychiatric hospitalization, his mother's devastating illness, confinement, and lobotomy, and the social upheavals of the post-war world and imaginatively transformed them.
Though madness is often linked with hardship and suffering, Ginsberg showed how it could also lead to profound and redemptive aesthetic, spiritual, and social changes. Through his revolutionary poetry and social advocacy, Ginsberg dedicated himself to leading others toward new ways of being human and easing pain.
Throughout his celebrated career Ginsberg's writings and most public life made us feel as though we knew everything there was to know about him. However, much has been left out about his experiences growing up with a mentally ill mother, his visions, and his psychiatric hospitalization.
In Best Minds, with a forty-year career studying and addressing trauma, Weine provides a groundbreaking exploration of the poet and his creative process especially in relation to madness.
Best Minds examines the complex relationships between mental illness, psychiatry, trauma, poetry, and prophecy--using the access Ginsberg generously shared to offer new, lively and indispensable insights into an American icon. Weine also provides new understandings of the paternalism, treatment failures, ethical lapses, and limitations of American psychiatry of the 1940s and 1950s.
In light of these new discoveries, the challenges Ginsberg faced appear starker and his achievements, both as a poet and an advocate, are even more remarkable.
442 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 28, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 19, 2022
In this rather remarkable study of Allen Ginsberg there are riches to be gleaned for any serious, aspiring poet. A sort of clinical as well as scholarly biography. The book was written by a psychiatrist who actually knew, as well as interviewed, Allen Ginsberg. The author, Dr. Stevan M. Weine, was also awarded by Ginsberg exclusive access to his personal medical records while a patient at New York’s Psychiatric Institute. And to make matters even more delectable, Dr. Weine surprisingly offers his own brilliant insights along with his keen mind and understanding of the creative process. Sort of, in a good way, a double-edged sword, so to speak. I could not recommend this book more assuredly to any scrupulously impassioned writer. Please read my review here:
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April 14, 2024
Read it for a uni essay. Remarkable research, it has everything and it’s got a smooth and engaging narration style. Only thing is they should hire a new graphic designer for that cover💀
March 20, 2023
A fascinating study of Ginsberg's life and work, focused on issues of "madness" (ie both mental health struggles and inspired creative genius). It looks at the poet's traumas and his artistic visions, his family and friends. It digs into his medical records and pulls apart his poems. Altogether, this is a valuable addition to the growing body of work on Ginsberg and his Beat peers.
A longer review will be included in Beatdom #23 in May 2023.
A longer review will be included in Beatdom #23 in May 2023.
May 25, 2023
A fascinating look at Ginsberg, his mental health issues, and their influence on his poetry, particularly Kaddish. The book suggests that the poet was dealing with guilt over allowing his mentally ill mother to receive a lobotomy. The author who is a psychiatrist did an excellent job of reviewing Ginsberg's life and the poet's own brush with mental illness and psychiatric hospitalization in the 1950s.
July 23, 2024
Madness As A Personal And Social Exploration
Very well written consideration of Ginsberg, the man, and his major works. Dr. Weine had an ongoing relationship with the poet and social revolutionary which serve as the basis for this thoughtful investigation of Ginsberg’s impact on American and literary culture.
Very well written consideration of Ginsberg, the man, and his major works. Dr. Weine had an ongoing relationship with the poet and social revolutionary which serve as the basis for this thoughtful investigation of Ginsberg’s impact on American and literary culture.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews