Reevaluating the Definition of a Cult

Esperanza and Irwin welcome Columbia University Professor Alexander Stille, the author of The Sullivanians. The Sullivan Institute was a maverick psychoanalytic practice and cult that flourished on the Upper West Side from 1957 until 1991. Paramount to the Sullivanian doctrine was the rejection of the traditional nuclear family and monogamous relationships. “The Sullivanians told myparents that the worst thing a person can do is raise their own children,” said Lauren Olitski, the daughter of painter and patient Jules Olitski. The patients were high functioning, intelligent and creative people, including the singer Judy Collins and writer Richard Price. But its influence over Jackson Pollock, and its presence in the Barnes Landing section of Springs for a fascinating, and different, Our Hamptons Podcast.