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In 1956, Anne Sexton (1928-1974), one of America's best-known poets of the confessional school of poetry, was admitted to Westwood Psychiatric Hospital after being diagnosed with postpartum depression. Among other causes, it seems that Sexton's emotional and physiological vulnerabilities were made worse by the dynamics of being cast swiftly into motherhood.
Sexton's own childhood had been an unhappy one. Her father, an affluent businessman, was an alcoholic and highly critical of his daughters. Her mother, sociable and vivacious, apportioned love parsimoniously. Sexton always described her mother as taking “top billing” in the household. In contrast, Sexton's live-in Aunt Nana was soothing and uncomplicated, lavishing infantilizing attention on her niece when the young Sexton might have pursued accomplishments more appropriate for her age.
As a student, Sexton did not particularly excel. She eloped with Alfred Muller Sexton II (Kayo), from a prosperous local family, just after high school. The couple moved back and forth between their parents' houses until Kayo went into the military service. Kayo then went to work for Anne's father in the garnetting business as a traveling salesman. During one of his absences, at her mother's insistence, Sexton began seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Brunner-Orne (the mother of Dr. Martin T. Orne, who would later become Sexton's analyst), who had treated Sexton's father for his alcoholism. In 1952, Sexton became pregnant with her first child, Linda Gray. Sexton's beloved Aunt Nana died in 1954. A second child, Joyce Ladd Sexton, was born a year later.
Admitted to Westwood Psychiatric Hospital after her second child was born, Sexton was referred to Dr. Martin T. Orne, who took over Sexton's case from his mother and treated her from 1956 to 1964. Sexton was seriously, even psychotically, disturbed and suffered from agitation, suicidal depression, and fits of feeling “unreal.” However, unlike most of the patients at Westwood, Sexton was not dia