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    Seduced by Madness
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    Seduced by Madness
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    Seduced by Madness
    Ebook512 pages8 hours

    Seduced by Madness

    By Carol Pogash

    2.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    She was fifteen when she visited the therapist; still a teen when they had sex. She was twenty-five when she married him and forty-four when she killed him.

    In October 2002, the quiet northern California town of Orinda was rocked by murder when Susan Polk, the mother of three teenage boys, was arrested for stabbing her husband and former therapist, Dr. Felix Polk, to death. The arrest and subsequent trial quickly became one of the most talked about murder cases in the country, as spectators and reporters learned the strange history behind this shocking killing.

    Now in Seduced by Madness, Carol Pogash—the leading journalist working the case—has written the definitive account of the Polk family saga, offering a rich and textured re-creation of this disturbing and tragic American tale. Examining the decadent culture of California in the 1970s, Pogash looks at how, in this period of drugs and sexual exploration, a fifteen-year-old Susan found herself caught in the grasp of Felix, her therapist—who, like others in the mental health profession, fell for every passing trend in mental health therapy. Culled from years of careful research, Pogash reconstructs the vague beginnings of the couple's sexual relationship in the therapist's office, exploring how Felix's relaxed attitude toward therapy blinded him to the complex nature of Susan's mental state, and how their mutual obsession with each other sealed their fate.

    With lyrical prose, Pogash skillfully traces the Polks' story—from their early yearnings for one another through their flawed marriage, which produced three highly intelligent but emotionally divided sons. Weaving a complex narrative of a family who lived in multimillion dollar homes but lingered in the shadow of dysfunction, Pogash reassembles their life in the years and months before Felix's death, intimately describing what led this soft-spoken wife to murder.

    Three years after Felix's death, Susan Polk was tried for first degree murder, and here Pogash provides a first-hand account of the wild, media-circus trial in which Susan defended herself and cross-examined two of her sons. Illustrating how the prosecution and the court responded to Susan's volatile behavior, Pogash takes you inside the deliberation room and uncovers how jurors reached their surprising verdict.

    Filled with the most complete case facts and interviews available, Seduced by Madness offers an unparalleled look at one of the most captivating murder cases in recent years.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061751202
    Unavailable
    Seduced by Madness
    Author

    Carol Pogash

    Carol Pogash is a regular contributor to the New York Times and has written for the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Washington Post, and many other newspapers and magazines. She is the author of the book As Real As It Gets. She lives in Orinda, California.

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    Reviews for Seduced by Madness

    2.5/5

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    • 1/5
      My summary of this case is this: Therapist has sex with girl (his patient) thereby destroying any chance the girl had of having any kind of mental stability, Therapist marries girl (this makes the sex alright, right?), many years later, because he can’t treat her and her mental instability just gets worse, she kills him. End of story.The title of this book intrigued me. By halfway through the book I hated it but I was trapped, determined to finish it just to find out what happened. We are told that Felix Polk was obsessed with Susan, he couldn’t live without her (this is why, even though she threatened his life, and he was sure she meant it, he wouldn’t leave), we are told this over and over again. We are treated to a day by day account of her delusions until I was ready to scream, “I get it! The woman was nuts!”The trial is recounted in the same way, from an accounting of every witness called, what Susan wore, the daily battles between Susan and the D.A., we just needed to know they happened, not how often or what was said each time.This was a cautionary tale to therapists to not have sex with their patients. Beyond that I see no use for it. Avoid it.