The Sullivanians

Sex, Psychotherapy, and the Wild Life of an American Commune

By: Alexander Stille

Narrated by: Jamie Renell

In the middle of the Ozzie and Harriet 1950s, the birth control pill became available and a maverick psychoanalytic institute, the Sullivan Institute for Research in Psychoanalysis, opened its doors in New York City. Its founders wanted to start a revolution, one grounded in ideals of creative expression, sexual liberation, and freedom from societal norms, and the revolution needed to begin at home. Dismantling the nuclear family would free kids from the repressive forces of their parents. The movement attracted many brilliant people as patients, including the painter Jackson Pollock and a swarm of other artists, the singer Judy Collins, and the dancer Lucinda Childs. By the 1960s, it had become an urban commune of hundreds of people, with patients living with other patients, leading a creative, polyamorous life.

By the mid-1970s, under the leadership of Saul Newton, it devolved from a radical communal experiment into an insular cult, with therapists controlling virtually every aspect of their patients' lives, from where they lived to how often they saw their children. Although the group was highly secretive, even after its dissolution in 1991, Alexander Stille has reconstructed the inner life of this hidden parallel world. Through countless interviews and personal papers, The Sullivanians reveals the story of a fallen utopia in the heart of New York City.

©2023 Alexander Stille (P)2023 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Interesting for someone new to the story

As a therapist and New Yorker I found The Sullivanians very interesting. Especially when considering the code of ethics we work from now. Power corrupts. The book itself felt at times a list of dates and events. Overall a good book

Excellent narrator, incredible story.

The story is incredible, the narrator is excellent. Some people felt this book was too long, I could have kept reading it forever! 

Bored and then perplexed

I spent the first quarter bored and the last three quarters not bored but completely horrified by how they were destroying the bonds between these mothers and their children and totally perplexed as to how educated women were allowing it to happen. These people were on another level all together.

Unbelievable Horror Story!

This is an amazing and almost unbelievable story. Also a horror story of 60s values, cultish behavior, and psychology gone wrong. Well written and narrated, although repetitive at times and similar names can get confusing. An excellent listen.

As a former member…

From 1974-1979, I found the book honest, fascinating, and sensitive. It filled in many blanks for me. Some of it I lived through and some of it I heard from people who stayed in the group much longer. A big thank you to Mr. Stilles for this epic story that shaped my life long after I fled the Sullivanians like a thief in the night!

redeems itself

first whole section (1/4?) is egregiously dull, biographical name dropping I basically had to hum through to get past. the rest was a more engaging read.

Mind-blowing & Disturbing

Eye-opening. Learning about how easily people can be manipulated and controlled by others is very rattling. I sometimes wonder if we are all part of a larger social and psychological experiment.