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Ballad of the Black and Blue Mind: A Novel
Ballad of the Black and Blue Mind A Novel Author:Anne Roiphe In the rarefied world of New York City psychoanalysts and their patients, Dr. Estelle Berman belongs to a dying breed. A distinguished analyst, she lives and practices on the Upper West Side and changes outfits between patients, some of whom she likes more than others. And now she has started falling asleep during meetings and forgetting her pat... more »ients? names. Her colleagues Dr. H. and Dr. Z. observe her mental decline with the objectivity of a Greek chorus, but when it comes to the disappointments in their own lives, they are far less detached. And then there are the patients: Justine, a movie star with a penchant for stealing things; Edith, who writes poems in secret and eats to subdue feelings of panic; and Anna, a self-harming college student whose depression baffles her parents. Ballad of the Black and Blue Mind is a novel of psychological realities that cut close to the bone, a book that dares to show us humanity in all its messy, mystifying, and glorious contradictions.« less