The Sullivanians

April 3, 2023
Journalist Stille (Excellent Cadavers) takes an intimate and engrossing look at the Sullivan Institute, a radical polygamous therapy group that emerged in 1950s New York City and Amagansett, Long Island. Named for Harry Stack Sullivan, a mental health pioneer who challenged traditional family values, and founded in 1957 by married therapists—and avowed communists—Saul Newton and Jane Pearce, the institute aimed to “champion repressed desires” by encouraging patients to “experiment sexually, trust their impulses, and break free of family dependency relationships.” Celebrity followers included novelists Richard Elman and Richard Price, singer Judy Collins, and art critic Clement Greenberg, who recruited painters Jackson Pollock and James Olitski. In 1975, some members launched a political theater group, The Fourth Wall Repertory Company, that was eventually taken over by Newton and his fifth wife, actor Joan Harvey, and became a vehicle for reinforcing Newton’s “personality cult” and asserting his “autocratic” control over the community. Drawing on candid interviews with ex-members and their children, Stille documents how Newton and his wives seduced patients, promoted alcohol and promiscuity, and raised children communally. Eventually, a series of custody battles between defectors and members—coupled with Newton’s advancing dementia and violent behavior—led to the institute’s dissolution in 1991. Doggedly researched and thoroughly compassionate, this is a page-turning exposé.

June 10, 2024

Stille (Excellent Cadavers) presents an exhaustive history of the founders, participants, and ideological tenets of the Sullivanians, an experimental, therapy-based community located in New York City's Upper West Side from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. With measure and restraint, narrator Jamie Renell describes how the Sullivanian community attracted members of the art and music scene who hoped for creative transformation and development. Others appreciated the affordable dormitory-style housing, mental health support, therapists willing to pen draft deferment letters, and a built-in social group. Though no-strings-attached sex was a mainstay, there was an additional emphasis on the values of platonic intimacy. Adherents of the Sullivanian philosophy were promised a reprieve from stuffy Freudian analysis and freedom from the confines of the nuclear family, sexual repression, and monogamy. While some achieved these goals, many were exposed to inebriated analysts, sexual coercion, and forced isolation from their families and communities. Renell's narration is solid and clear, allowing listeners to better navigate this complex and layered account. VERDICT While the narrative trajectory will be familiar territory for those who've read with cult-centered nonfiction, Stille's detours into pop-culture scandals and New York City history set this title apart.--Ingrid Conley-Abrams

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