Saul B. Newton (June 25, 1906 – December 21, 1991) was a controversial

psychotherapist Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome pro ...

who led an unorthodox therapy group in New York City. It had no formal name, but outsiders referred to members as "Sullivanians" or "The Fourth Wall."

Background

Newton's original family name was Cohen. He was born in

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of Ki ...

, and attended the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

Career

Newton went on to Chicago, where he associated with radical circles at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, becoming a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

and

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

. He served with the

Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion The Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion or Mac-Paps were a battalion of Canadians who fought as part of the XV International Brigade on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. Except for France, no other country had a greater p ...

of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

(as Saul Bernard Cohen). In 1943 he was drafted into the U.S. Army and fought in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He went on to study psychotherapy after the war. Newton retained a dual focus on politics and psychology throughout his life. In 1957, Newton and his wife, Dr. Jane Pearce, founded the Sullivan Institute for Research in Psychoanalysis in New York. They had previously worked at the

William Alanson White Institute The William Alanson White Institute (WAWI), founded in 1943, is an Psychoanalytic institutes and societies in the united states, institution for training psychoanalysts and psychotherapists which also offers general psychotherapy and psychoanalys ...

, but left several years after the death of Harry Stack Sullivan, one of the White Institute's founders. Although Newton and Pearce's institute was named after Sullivan, it is widely seen as having offered an extremely distorted and often times abusive version of Sullivan's teaching in order to better meet Newton’s personal whims. The institute's teachings held that traditional family ties were the root cause of mental illness, and espoused a non-monogamous lifestyle. During the 1960s, an informal community centered on the therapeutic practices of the Institute began to form. (

Judy Collins Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning seven decades. An Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Award-winning recording artist, she is known for her ec ...

chronicles her time with the Sullivanians in her autobiography.). At its peak, in the late 1970s, this community had several hundred members (patients and therapists) living on the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

. The group gained some notoriety, not only for its non-monogamous lifestyle, but because patients were often encouraged to sever ties with their families. Since his death, many of his female patients and colleagues have stated that Newton took advantage of them sexually. Several children born into the group have come forward about the abuse and neglect suffered from Newton’s psychological theories. A major project was the Fourth Wall Repertory Company (a.k.a. 'Fourth Wall Political Theater'), which performed from roughly 1976 to 1991. It was based in New York's East Village. Newton was a board member, and performed in several productions. Newton was also a producer of several documentaries directed by Joan Harvey, Newton's fifth wife, an actress and psychoanalyst. Membership declined in the late 1980s when the group was subject to unfavorable publicity, investigations into alleged professional misconduct by its therapists, high-profile child custody cases and organized opposition by disaffected former members who described the group as a "psychotherapy cult". Newton was married and divorced six times and had ten children, among them cultural anthropologist

Esther Newton Esther Newton (born 1940, New York City) is an American cultural anthropologist who did pioneering work on the ethnography of lesbian and gay communities in the United States. Career Newton studied history at the University of Michigan and receiv ...

. His son Keith Newton has made a four-part docuseries about the group, entitled ''The Fourth Wall''. The first episode was premiered at the 2023

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

. Saul Newton died in 1991 from

sepsis Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...

, following the onset of

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

Works

* ''Conditions of Human Growth'' (with Jane Pearce). Citadel Press, 1986, .

References

;Additional sources * Tamar Lewin
Custody Case Lifts Veil On a 'Psychotherapy Cult'
NYT, June 3, 1988 * Ronald Sullivan

NYT, April 4, 1989 * Bruce Lambert

NYT, December 23, 1991 * Abraham Lincoln Brigade, at Wikisource

Background

Career

Works

References

Further reading