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Linda Gray Sexton, author of four novels, two memoirs, and numerous pieces of nonfiction, writes in the voice of a survivor. First, she weathered a harrowing childhood in the home of her physically, sexually, and emotionally abusive mother, the poet Anne Sexton. Then she fought her way back to health after three suicide attempts and a battle with bipolar disorder that cost her her marriage and threatened her relationships with two teenage sons.
In a frank and lively style, with a healthy dose of self-reflection, Linda Sexton narrates this complex history. She searches for the historical roots of her present suffering while accepting responsibility for its impact on the lives of others. With a focus on trauma, depression, transmission, repetition, and recovery, she speaks of matters that psychoanalysis can help us understand. But beyond that, she also displays a keen sense of how psychoanalysis produces change.
Linda's first memoir, Searching for Mercy Street: My Journey Back to My Mother, Anne Sexton, sketches her life as the daughter of a narcissistic, bipolar, and very famous mother and a caring though also sometimes violent father. Anne Sexton had her first mental breakdown when Linda was a toddler, and Linda's care was assigned to an abusive relative whose punishments included beating her for sucking her thumb. When she returned home, she was found by her mother hiding in the garage at