Tue Apr 22 21:20:00 UTC 2025: ## Posthumous Publication of Joan Didion’s Therapy Notes Sparks Debate
**New York, NY** – A new book, “Notes to John,” compiles the previously unpublished therapy notes of the late Joan Didion, sparking discussion about posthumous privacy and the ethics of publishing such personal material. The slim volume, discovered among Didion’s papers after her death, details her sessions with Dr. Roger MacKinnon between 1999 and 2002.
While some might question the ethical implications of releasing such intimate reflections, the author argues that Didion, a writer well-versed in managing her public image, likely wouldn’t object. The notes, addressed to her husband John Gregory Dunne (also deceased), offer a candid look at Didion’s life, including struggles with her adopted daughter Quintana Roo’s health issues. The material complements Didion’s previous works, “The Year of Magical Thinking” and “Blue Nights,” which also explored themes of grief and mortality.
Further supporting the publication’s legitimacy, similar material is already available in the couple’s unrestricted archive at the New York Public Library. The author contends that Didion’s control over her legacy, reflected in the numerous mentions of “control” within the notes themselves, suggests she would prefer a controlled release under her publisher’s guidance rather than interpretation by a biographer. “Notes to John” provides a raw, intimate portrait of Didion’s life, completing, in a sense, a trilogy on loss and reflection.
First Piper 