Best minds: how Allen Ginsberg made revolutionary poetry from madness
Description
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 that 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 postwar world and imaginatively transformed them. Though madness is often linked with hardship and suffering, Ginsberg's showed how it could also lead to profound and redemptive aesthetic, spiritual, and social changes. Through his revoƯlutionary poetry and social advocacy, Ginsberg dedicated himself to leading others toward new ways of being human and easing pain. Throughout his celebrated career Ginsberg 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 indisƯpensable insights into an American icon. Weine also provides new understandings of the paternalism, treatment failures, ethical lapses, and limitations of American psychiatry in the 1940s and 1950s. In light of these new discoveries, the challenges Ginsberg faced appear starker and his achieveƯments, both as a poet and an advocate, even more remarkable.
Subjects
Subjects
Autobiography
Biographies
Biography
Creative ability
Criticism and interpretation
Electronic books
Gay authors
Gay men
Ginsberg, Allen
Ginsberg, Allen, -- 1926-1997 -- Criticism and interpretation
Ginsberg, Allen, -- 1926-1997 -- Mental health
History
Literary criticism
Literature and mental illness
Literature and mental illness -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Mental health
Mental illness in literature
Twentieth century
Biographies
Biography
Creative ability
Criticism and interpretation
Electronic books
Gay authors
Gay men
Ginsberg, Allen
Ginsberg, Allen, -- 1926-1997 -- Criticism and interpretation
Ginsberg, Allen, -- 1926-1997 -- Mental health
History
Literary criticism
Literature and mental illness
Literature and mental illness -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Mental health
Mental illness in literature
Twentieth century
More Details
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ISBN:
9781531502669
9781531502676
9781531502676
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Grouping Information
Grouped Work ID | 3425cd9e-9343-1efa-3392-a4d23c729af1 |
---|---|
Grouping Title | best minds how allen ginsberg made revolutionary poetry from madness |
Grouping Author | stevan m weine |
Grouping Category | book |
Grouping Language | English (eng) |
Last Grouping Update | 2024-05-04 12:16:31PM |
Last Indexed | 2024-05-06 23:20:54PM |
Solr Fields
accelerated_reader_point_value
0
accelerated_reader_reading_level
0
author
Weine, Stevan M., 1961-
author2-role
hoopla digital
author_display
Weine, Stevan M.
display_description
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 that 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 postwar world and imaginatively transformed them. Though madness is often linked with hardship and suffering, Ginsberg's showed how it could also lead to profound and redemptive aesthetic, spiritual, and social changes. Through his revoƯlutionary poetry and social advocacy, Ginsberg dedicated himself to leading others toward new ways of being human and easing pain. Throughout his celebrated career Ginsberg 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 indisƯpensable insights into an American icon. Weine also provides new understandings of the paternalism, treatment failures, ethical lapses, and limitations of American psychiatry in the 1940s and 1950s. In light of these new discoveries, the challenges Ginsberg faced appear starker and his achieveƯments, both as a poet and an advocate, even more remarkable.
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Books
eBook
eBook
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Book
eBook
eBook
id
3425cd9e-9343-1efa-3392-a4d23c729af1
isbn
9781531502669
9781531502676
9781531502676
itype_eh
ADULT BOOK
last_indexed
2024-05-07T05:20:54.714Z
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Non Fiction
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Non Fiction
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Year
primary_isbn
9781531502669
publishDate
2023
publisher
Fordham University Press
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Autobiography
Biographies
Biography
Creative ability
Electronic books
Gay authors
Gay men
Ginsberg, Allen, -- 1926-1997 -- Criticism and interpretation
Ginsberg, Allen, -- 1926-1997 -- Mental health
Literary criticism
Literature and mental illness -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Mental illness in literature
Twentieth century
Biographies
Biography
Creative ability
Electronic books
Gay authors
Gay men
Ginsberg, Allen, -- 1926-1997 -- Criticism and interpretation
Ginsberg, Allen, -- 1926-1997 -- Mental health
Literary criticism
Literature and mental illness -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Mental illness in literature
Twentieth century
title_display
Best minds : how Allen Ginsberg made revolutionary poetry from madness
title_full
Best Minds : How Allen Ginsberg Made Revolutionary Poetry from Madness [electronic resource] / Stevan M. Weine
Best minds : how Allen Ginsberg made revolutionary poetry from madness / Stevan M. Weine
Best minds : how Allen Ginsberg made revolutionary poetry from madness / Stevan M. Weine
title_short
Best minds
title_sub
how Allen Ginsberg made revolutionary poetry from madness
topic_facet
Autobiography
Biography
Creative ability
Criticism and interpretation
Electronic books
Gay authors
Gay men
Ginsberg, Allen
History
Literature and mental illness
Mental health
Mental illness in literature
Twentieth century
Biography
Creative ability
Criticism and interpretation
Electronic books
Gay authors
Gay men
Ginsberg, Allen
History
Literature and mental illness
Mental health
Mental illness in literature
Twentieth century
Solr Details Tables
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hoopla:MWT15783005 | Online Hoopla Collection | Online Hoopla | eBook | eBook | 1 | false | true | Hoopla | https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/15783005?utm_source=MARC&Lid=hh4435 | Available Online |
record_details
Bib Id | Format | Format Category | Edition | Language | Publisher | Publication Date | Physical Description | Abridged |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ils:.b27313621 | Book | Books | First edition | English | Fordham University Press | 2023 | xiv, 289 pages : illustrations (black and white), portraits ; 24 cm | |
hoopla:MWT15783005 | eBook | eBook | English | Fordham University Press | 2023 | 1 online resource (304 pages) |
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