I Never Promised You a Rose Garden became a national bestseller when Greenberg published it in 1964 under the pseudonym Hannah Green. This narrative unlocked the doors to what was previously a mysterious interior—the inside of a psychiatric hospital and the inside of the mind of someone suffering from schizophrenia. The sixties were a decade of revolutionary ideas, and Greenberg's book fit right into the scene by throwing light on the then-obscure topic of mental illness and by providing a new perspective of psychological therapies.

R. V. Cassill, writing for the New York Times, praised Greenberg for showing “courage that is sometimes breathtaking in its concessions.” Cassill continued: “the author makes a faultless series of discriminations between the justifications for living in an evil and complex reality and the justifications for retreating into the security of madness.” Cassill's only complaint about this novel was that “it...