Chestnut Lodge: An Unreal Place

Abstract

Abstract The author, a staff psychiatrist at Chestnut Lodge from 1986 to 1991, worked there at the same time contributor Liat Katz was a patient. Using her article as a jumping-off point, he offers a personal portrait of the Lodge from the staff perspective, based on what struck him as unique and most salient about the hospital and the hospital community. Among other characteristics, Chestnut Lodge encouraged patients and staff to be themselves. This was one of the core therapeutic features of the Lodge, and it stimulated creativity among its patients and staff. Thus, both were helped in overcoming ubiquitous and often harmful pressures to conform. The author continues to mourn the Lodge, which closed in 2001.