Setting the Reader on Fire

Reviews the book, Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire: A Study of Genius, Mania, and Character by Kay Redfield Jamison (see record 2017-09761-000). This magnificent, breathtaking encyclopedic narrative of Robert Lowell’s life and work tackles profound problems of identity, character, creativity...

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Veröffentlicht in:PsycCritiques 2017-08, Vol.62 (34), p.No Pagination Specified-No Pagination Specified
1. Verfasser: Reiser, Robert
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:Reviews the book, Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire: A Study of Genius, Mania, and Character by Kay Redfield Jamison (see record 2017-09761-000). This magnificent, breathtaking encyclopedic narrative of Robert Lowell’s life and work tackles profound problems of identity, character, creativity, and illness with almost hypomanic energy, and the reader is taken through a relentless, passionate, and highly engaging account. Lowell, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, a man of profound contradictions born into a prominent, traditional Boston Brahmin family, went on to “break the mold” in terms of developing an intensely personal and confessional “modern” approach to his writing and poetry. One of the unique and intriguing features of this biography is the fact that Jamison was given permission to access Lowell’s medical records, and she gives us detailed accounts of his hospitalizations and treatment. This account of repeated hospitalizations typically for severe mania with psychotic features (more than 15 in his lifetime) and attempts at treatment will be of great interest to mental health practitioners. There are hard, important, and humbling lessons here in terms of recognizing the limitations of our knowledge and ability to predict the course of mental illness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)
ISSN:1554-0138
1554-0138
DOI:10.1037/a0041003