"Much madness is divinest sense," wrote Emily Dickinson, "And much sense the starkest madness." The idea that poetry and madness are deeply intertwined, and that madness sometimes leads to the most divine poetry, has been with us since antiquity. In his critical and clinical introduction to this splendid anthology--the first of its kind--psychiatrist and poet Mark S. Bauer considers mental disorders from multiple perspectives and challenges us to broaden our outlook. He has selected more than 200 poems from across seven centuries that reflect a wide range mental states--from despondency and despair to melancholy, mania, and complete submersion into a world of heightened, original perception. Featuring such poets as George Herbert, John Clare, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Berryman, Sylvia Plath, Ann Sexton, Weldon Kees, Lucille Clifton, Jane Kenyon, and many others, A Mind Apart has much to offer those who suffer from mental illness, those who work to understand it, and all those who value the poetry that has come to us from the heights and depths of human experience.

"An excellent choice for study and discussion by residents...A substantial contribution to our field in a book that can expand the reader's sense and knowledge of not only the people we treat, but also the people we walk among every day." - Psychiatrist.com

"A Mind Apart is a wonderful book: human, beautiful, and deeply moving. Dr. Bauer, a leading authority on depressive illnesses, has made a real contribution to our understanding of melancholia and madness." - Kay Redfield Jamison, author of An Unquiet Mind

"Almost as long as poetry has been written, it has been associated with madness. As both physician and poet, Mark Bauer is uniquely positioned to explore this field of reality and myth. His superb introductory essay argues that some kinds of unhinging are a benefit to poets, others a disaster. And his selection of poems from the Middle Ages to the present day is one of the most fascinating anthologies I have ever read." - David Mason, University of Colorado