Mad Muse

Jeffrey Berman is Distinguished Teaching Professor of English at the University at Albany, USA. He has written on a wide range of subjects, including literature and psychoanalysis, the pedagogy of self-disclosure, love and loss, and death education.

• Introduction: Out of the Closet to Bear WitnessChapter 1. "The Landscape of Depression"; William Styron and Darkness Visible Chapter 2. "My Proclaimed Sanity and My Conjectured Madness"; Kate Millett and The Loony-Bin Trip Chapter 3. "A Strange and Driving Force, a Destroyer, a Fire in the Blood"; Kay Redfield Jamison and An Unquiet Mind Chapter 4. "For Better or Worse You Inherit Me"; Linda Gray Sexton and Searching for Mercy Street and Half in Love Chapter 5. "Truth Is Bendable"; Lauren Slater and Lying Chapter 6. "I Cannot Separate Her Homophobia from My Own"; Andrew Solomon and The Noonday DemonChapter 7. "Someone Acts Through My Brain"; Elyn R. Saks and The Center Cannot Hold Conclusion: The Challenges of Reading Mad Memoirs

With the rise of the memoir genre, authors have become ever more candid about the complexity of their inner lives, including states of extreme excitement, depression, and disorganization. Berman explores this special type of memoir with insight, generosity, and eloquence. He places each in the context of the author’s previous writings, as a means of illuminating the interactions among them, as well as the author’s consistent themes and concerns. The result is an amazing journey for the reader, who will dive into the depths of each writer’s life and imagination in a way that makes their experiences accessible, while inspiring admiration for their courage and accomplishments. Mad Muse expands our understanding of the range of human suffering, endurance, achievement, and triumph.