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Seduced by Madness: The True Story of the Susan Polk Murder Case
by Carol Pogash
Product Group: Book
Publisher: William Morrow (2007-06-01)
ISBN: 0061147702
EAN: 9780061147708
Dewey Decimal #: 364.1523092
Binding/Media: Hardcover - 384 pages
Release Date: 2007-05-29
SKU: DW-D0U9-8XEZ
Condition: As New
Comments: New - remainder mark on lower edge
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
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.
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Customer Reviews
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Seduced by Madness
Rating  (5)
Date: 2009-10-18
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Carol Pogash's account of the Polk murder, it's genesis & it's aftermath, is something of a tough read.
This isn't because of Pogash, a talented writer with excellent investigative skills, compassion & an admirable hard-headed ability not to be "seduced by madness" herself.
It is the spectacularly awful Polk family, who bring to life poet Philip Larkin's line about "your Mum & Dad, they f..k you up."
The murder victim, father Felix, works as a psychologist counselling people wanting help with their problems & illnesses. He can be seen, positively, as the archetypal wounded healer, or less positively as a damaged man in a position of power preying on those unable to protect themselves.
Mum Susan met her husband in a therapeutic situation as a teenager, during which Polk flagrantly flouted all accepted ethical & moral standards by seducing her, perhaps with the use of drugs.
Felix had a difficult & painful childhood & young adulthood, but no more so than many other people who go on to lead productive lives. (This salient fact needs to be addressed more often by psychology.) The relationship begun in Susan's mid teens produced three sons, & the family seemed to be living the American Dream, with their healthy children, lovely house & financial stability.
As if in a medieval morality play, things go badly wrong. Susan is an obviously ill woman, not very likeable in her self obsessive manipulations & delusions. I got the sense that not only couldn't Felix deal with her illness, he couldn't even grasp the extent of the problem.
Pogash writes brilliantly of the turmoil within the family. Her clear insight is rare in true crime writing, & her obvious sympathy for the boys never descends into over emotionalism.
The section on the trial is riveting. Susan implodes in a situation she can't manipulate, & we're left to wonder how someone so compromised was eventually allowed to represent herself.
The book is disturbing on several levels. Pogash's careful handling of the story highlights the frightening cracks in our safety nets. If your psychologist can seduce you & not treat you correctly...if you can represent yourself in court even though you're paranoid & delusional...
The creepy, unsettling feel is heightened by the descriptions of the Polks' off centre behaviour. No one ever quite reacts in an expected way, & we are made to question assumptions & beliefs about "normality."
This segues neatly into the trial, where the machinery of justice exists & works in a different world than that inhabited by Susan. Very real issues of the inherent dichotomy between being legally insane & insane in an everyday sense are very apparent. That said, can insanity be a defense? The majority of mentally ill people, of course, never kill anyone. They are more likely to harm themselves.
It's also interesting to consider how Susan's abrasive, unpleasant personality affected her life, right up to & including the trial. It certainly affected her poor children.
Carol Pogash has written the best sort of true crime book, that will have you thinking long after you've finished reading.
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A BLACK WIDOW WHO STINGS & KILLS--RIVETING!
Rating (5)
Date: 2009-02-08
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is the famous account of Susan Polk, a northern California woman who brutally stabbed & murdered her psychologist husband, Dr. Felix Polk. She emotionally destroyed her three teenage boys, and showing no remorse for the killing, her only concern was to be thought "sane" and not delusional. After hiring & firing many defense atty's, among them Daniel Horowitz, who's own wife was brutally murdered during the trial, she went on to defend herself, laying bare her paranoia & delusional thinking. The book delves into her life growing up, which may have much to do with the eventual outcome. This is a page-turner, & well-worth the $6+ to download to your Kindle.
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Doomed from the Very Beginning!
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-08-28
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
The Susan Polk has garnered a lot more attention simply because the defendant and convicted murderer, Susan Polk, is quite a complicated human being. She is definitely troubled and her relationship with a man who was first a father figure and later her lover turned husband and father of their three sons would be his victim. He was as obsessed and in love with Susan first as a patient and later as a wife. This book really explores their complicated relationship under the circumstances. Until now, I never thought much about the Polk case and as to why it got so much interest. Unfortunately, the great Dr. Felix Polk and his relationship with young Susan was doomed from the start. It was destined for failure. It was not that easy to end the relationship. Clearly, Susan is delusional and suffers from mental illness. Her behavior was never properly treated and she believed that everybody especially Felix was against her. What was the driving point might have been that Felix was supposedly taking over the dominant parental role in the family and pushing Susan aside. Of course, that was never the case but in Susan's delusional and obviously sick mind, she believed that Felix was setting the world against her especially by reaching to their sons. Unfortunately, the family has suffered a tragedy and this book is excellent in explaining in details about the case. While Carol Pogash is not a well-known true crime writer, she has done far more than the other author that I read about this case.
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Cuckoo for Coco Puffs: A new classic of the genre
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-08-06
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Every so often in the true crime genre author and subject come together in an almost fated way to produce a book that illuminates not only the crime but the times that produced it. McGinniss's Blind Faith, Stumbo's Until the Twelfth of Never, Alexander's Very Much a Lady and Rule's The Stranger Beside Me are among the select few and now they are joined by Carol Pogash's Seduced by Madness. This is a fine, almost ridiculously readable book by any standard.
The Polk murder case was true crime fodder even before the lead defense attorney's wife was murdered just before trial. Susan Polk was accused of murdering her husband, Felix, during a drawn out divorce and custody battle. Susan claimed she killed him in self-defense and revealed that Felix had been her therapist from the time she was 16. With those ingredients it's no wonder that everyone from Court TV to People were hot on this case. Then add the fact that Susan Polk clearly attended the Betty Broderick School of Tell Your Side of the Story to Any Journalist Who Will Listen. Susan is a stranger to both modesty and discretion - she's also undeniably brilliant and, sadly, delusional.
And there lies the brilliance of Pogash's book: instead of simply recording the salacious details (and there are plenty), she digs deeper, delving into the many fads and nuances of therapy-happy California in the 1970s and 1980s. From Est to the Satanic Ritual Abuse hysteria and everything else along the way, the Polks seem to have been part of it all. Certainly Felix Polk's sense of therapeutic boundaries were a little lax, marriage to one former patient, long-term friendships with current patients. All this would be merely odd (and almost a parody of what an East Coaster thinks goes on in California) except for the fact that Susan Polk needed psychiatric help. Maybe Felix saw himself living out Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night with him heroically saving his Nicole (Susan) by marrying her. Maybe Felix didn't realize how ill Susan really was. More often than not Felix either humored or fed Susan's minor delusions until the day Susan, inevitably, turned on him. Pogash does a fine job of showing the reader Susan Polk's charisma, we get glimpses that help us understand her incredible influence over her husband and children.
The trial coverage here is nothing short of spectacular. These are the looniest court proceedings since a Florida serial killer sang to his journalist groupie girlfriend on the stand. That was 5 minutes, this went on for weeks. Expert witnesses who appear guiltier than the defendant, a defendant more concerned with being "right" than being found not guilty and the unbearable tragedy of a mother cross-examining her son who is testifying against her all add up to trial you'll never forget.
This is a fantastic book. For the True Crime genre fan, this is pure ambrosia. For general readers this is an absorbing read. For all, this is a book that will deepen your understanding of the way we live now.
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"Tragic yet mesmerizing"
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-07-04
6 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
This story illustrates the old axiom that truth is stranger than fiction. The fascinating tale has so many bizarre twists and turns that one cannot help but be transfixed. Susan Polk begins seeing her therapist at age 15, marries the much older man a few years later, and a quarter of a century later stabs him 27 times, leaving him in a pool of blood in the pool house of the family's luxurious estate.
In between these bookends, journalist Carol Pogash tells the story of Susan Polk's deepening personal madness embedded in the cultural madness of the psychotherapy world of the 1960s and 1970s in Berkeley, where therapist-patient sex was tolerated, psychodrama and EST were treatments du jour, and cocaine use was rampant. The Polks even crusaded against mythical Satanic ritual abusers, claiming that their eldest son Adam had been kidnapped, raped, and made into a multiple personality. And if all that isn't enough, we've got exorcisms, psychics, and repressed memory claims.
Pogash's rendition of the four-month trial is a riveting page-turner. Susan Polk fired attorney after attorney and ended up representing herself. On center stage, the intelligent but delusional defendant demonstrated a stunning ability to "take any set of facts and mold a story where she was both victim and hero." It is painful to read about her brutal cross-examination of two of her three sons. Pogash chronicles the Freudian slips that give glimpses into her pathology, as she called her dead husband her father and her favored middle son her husband.
I am intrigued to ponder how Ms. Polk's trial outcome might have been different if it came after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling of June 19, 2008, in Illinois v. Edwards. Now, a mentally ill defendant may be barred from representing herself if she is delusional to the point that she is unable to effectively represent her best interests. (For my report on the Edwards case, type shurl.org/insane into your browser's address bar.) Perhaps that will be grounds for appeal of her second-degree murder conviction?
From the point of view of a forensic psychologist, I especially appreciated the depictions of the expert testimony. We had the cagey forensic pathologist who disappeared in the middle of the trial when the judge insisted he produce his files, and the seasoned psychologist who testified for the defense, based mainly on what Ms. Polk had told her and without benefit of any formal psychological testing, that the defendant was a battered woman who suffered from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
I thought Pogash remained remarkably balanced and fair in her reporting, especially as compared to many pundits who flock to the true-crime genre. Being personally acquainted with upwards of a dozen of the participants whom she included in her account, I can say that by and large she portrayed them accurately and fairly.
Seduced by Madness is a riveting page-turner, a fascinating history, and a balanced portrayal of a high-profile trial that shined a spotlight on one family's dark pathos. I recommend it.
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