Seduced by Madness

Starred review from April 30, 2007
Journalist Pogash recounts and analyzes the story of Susan Polk in a riveting summation of both her life and her sensational trial for the 2002 murder of her husband, Felix Polk. In 1972, when Susan was a bright, troubled 15-year-old, skipping school, spending long hours alone reading serious fiction, she began an intense form of therapy with Polk, a respected and brilliant Berkeley therapist who specialized in adolescence. At some disputed point during the therapy, they began an affair and Felix, 25 years her senior, left his wife and children to marry her in 1981. Pogash, in fairness, points out the liberal therapy theories of the post '60s (Felix was an est follower), but the early inappropriate relationship between Susan and Felix would weigh heavily on their marriage and figure prominently in the murder trial. They had three boys (two of whom testified against their mother) and claimed their eldest, Adam, was subjected to abuse and satanic rituals in the California preschool scandal of the '80s. While the background is fascinating, the coverage of the trial is mesmerizing. Pogash takes the characters—the two DAs, the headline-grabbing defense attorney, Susan (after the attorney's departure from the case) acting as her own counsel, the jury, the courtroom groupies—and creates an edge-of-your-seat excitement. For fans of true crime, psychology, courtroom drama and truth-is- stranger-than fiction, this is a triumph.