[Vwoolf] Virginia Woolf: bi-polar

[Anne Fernald]

Excellent points, all, Brenda.

On Wed, Mar 7, 2018 at 1:07 PM, Brenda S. Helt <helt0010 at umn.edu> wrote:

> I think it might be helpful, too, to avoid using the rhetoric of
> *labeling* someone bipolar or as bipolar, as doinf so implies that a
> person with a particular trait should be *identified* by that trait in
> some sort of all-encompassing way.  Likewise, I’m uncomfortable with the
> “be” form of the verb being used here, as in “Woolf *was* bipolar.”
> Woolf might well *have suffered from* what psychiatrists today term
> “bipolar disorder”—among other things, as Woolf also heard voices, which is
> not consistent with bipolar (not bipolar alone).  As a teacher, one can say
> that contemporary psychiatrists and psychologists have hypothesized that
> Woolf may have suffered from bipolar disorder, *and* we can *also*
> underscore that if she did, it of course did not *define* her as a person
> or a writer or a woman any more than it defines those of us who suffer from
> bipolar today.  Bipolar is a medical condition, not a type of person.  I
> refer to myself as “*having* bipolar *disorder*,” not “*being* bipolar.”
> I also have a physical disability called “CMT,” which is similar to
> muscular dystrophy.  Nobody ever says of folks with CMT or MD:  “She *is*
> CMT” or “He *was* MD.”  Nor do we today act frightened to acknowledge
> that an admired figure of the past probably had muscular dystrophy when
> medical specialists today are able to perceive that that figure almost
> certainly had MD.
>
>
>
> I worry very much about a teacher’s well-meaning and thoughtful hesitancy
> to talk too facilely about Woolf and bipolar disorder coming across as an
> acceptance of the stigma that has been being attached to bipolar disorder
> by the larger (and social media) culture these students are enmeshed in.
> It is fine to say that Woolf may very well have suffered from bipolar
> disorder, and that if she had been able to get the psychiatric medical
> treatment available to us today, she might have lived longer and written
> more books.  But to also say that’s all conjectural.  *Except* for this
> part:  those who get psychiatric help for bipolar disorder are much less
> likely to commit suicide than those who do not.  *That* part is a fact.
>
>
>
> Brenda
>
>
>
> *From:* Vwoolf [mailto:vwoolf-bounces at lists.osu.edu] *On Behalf Of *Anne
> Fernald via Vwoolf
> *Sent:* Wednesday, March 07, 2018 9:29 AM
> *Cc:* Woolf list
> *Subject:* Re: [Vwoolf] Virginia Woolf: bi-polar
>
>
>
> Dear Woolfians,
>
>
>
> Echoing both the discomfort and much of what Brenda wrote. It's important
> to me to distinguish between an educated post-mortem guess, which, I agree,
> seems to suggest bipolar or some closely related mental illness, and saying
> she was bipolar as a settled fact.
>
>
>
> Definitions change and post-hoc diagnoses based on historical evidence can
> get us somewhere, but not all the way, so I really want to acknowledge the
> fact of Woolf's mental illness, the signs that point scholars to
> hypothesize this or that diagnosis, and the fact that, in her lifetime, the
> (inadequate) treatment she received did not label her as bipolar.
>
>
>
> Anne
>
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 7, 2018 at 11:46 AM, Brenda S. Helt via Vwoolf <
> vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> wrote:
>
> What would be the problem with understanding Woolf to have suffered from
> bipolar disorder, exactly?  There’s good evidence for that, which you can
> easily find in the serious Woolf scholarship (not just in a recent news
> article), and saying so shouldn’t negatively affect how we understand/view
> Woolf and her work.  Possibly it will impact how students understand the
> suicide—possibly in a way that’s helpful, even.  As someone with bipolar, I
> can tell you that although the words used to define it have changed (when I
> was diagnosed in my early 20s it was “manic-depressive, for example), the
> disorder has been aroun a long time and a lot of very productive, very
> creative, very intelligent people appear to have had it.  It will help
> students who have it or know someone who does for their teachers not to shy
> away from saying “Yes, there’s a good chance Hemingway, Woolf, Plath et al
> were bipolar.”
>
>
>
> That’s my two cents.  It’s what I always did with my students and I
> personally found only positive consequences to have come of it.  You
> should, though, read up on bipolar before you do that.  It sounds like you
> might accidentally stigmatize Woolf and bipolars generally with the
> attitude towards this disability I’m perceiving in the below.
>
>
>
> Best,
>
>
>
> Brenda Helt
>
>
>
> Co-editor *Queer Bloomsbury*
>
> https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-queer-bloomsbury.html
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__edinburghuniversitypress.com_book-2Dqueer-2Dbloomsbury.html&d=DwMFaQ&c=aqMfXOEvEJQh2iQMCb7Wy8l0sPnURkcqADc2guUW8IM&r=k1OoytuRmrU4MiIwbI-7ElFohPGR5Vr0JxDyMjG9DsI&m=kK0-_fx000AiyDdYolqQe4KgXmd3EGWy8BPyWZpCjmQ&s=E-MO8d2oQBZ9pFa06ONK65GRZtR_iD3W5BnElqIKOQY&e=>
>
>
>
> Fine artist
>
> http://www.brendahelt.com
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.brendahelt.com_&d=DwMFaQ&c=aqMfXOEvEJQh2iQMCb7Wy8l0sPnURkcqADc2guUW8IM&r=k1OoytuRmrU4MiIwbI-7ElFohPGR5Vr0JxDyMjG9DsI&m=kK0-_fx000AiyDdYolqQe4KgXmd3EGWy8BPyWZpCjmQ&s=bKWmitZuoMS7xehQqnVL9JNU-MoZX6NXq1M8peAKEEw&e=>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Vwoolf [mailto:vwoolf-bounces at lists.osu.edu] *On Behalf Of *Ellen
> Moody via Vwoolf
> *Sent:* Wednesday, March 07, 2018 8:24 AM
> *To:* Woolf list
> *Subject:* [Vwoolf] Virginia Woolf: bi-polar
>
>
>
> I would like to know how others in classroom respond to students saying as
> a (somewhat settled diagnosis) that Virginia Woolf was 'bi-polar."
>
>
>
> When I resisted partly because since age 9 I have known depression,
> anxiety-attacks, panic and a whole array of mental problems let's say and I
> find each new fashionable set of terms from schizophrenic to bi-polar
> unconvincing. Too simplistic, too reductive.
>
>
>
> But I listened and what I seemed to hear was this diagnosis of "bi-polar"
> made Woolf into a "sane" person who had deep mood swings - from say
> productive, cheerful and "strong" to some snakepit of breakdown, despair,
> suicidal impulses. As used, it seemed a normalzing tool, as if were to make
> Woolf more acceptable
>
>
>
> They said they found it in a New York Times article which was trying to
> sell Cornwall as a place to go through the association with To the
> Lighthouse. On this I remarked that literally To the Lighthouse is situated
> in the Hebrides (I see a connection and memory of Johnson and Boswell here
> too), another place on the edge of the British mainland...
>
>
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/travel/virginia-woolf-cornwall.html
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.nytimes.com_2018_02_26_travel_virginia-2Dwoolf-2Dcornwall.html&d=DwMFaQ&c=aqMfXOEvEJQh2iQMCb7Wy8l0sPnURkcqADc2guUW8IM&r=k1OoytuRmrU4MiIwbI-7ElFohPGR5Vr0JxDyMjG9DsI&m=kK0-_fx000AiyDdYolqQe4KgXmd3EGWy8BPyWZpCjmQ&s=J2P9W4NmeAsFaPXs6HxIUjvKknrobvyeZv8URrmMubY&e=>
>
>
>
> How do or would others handle this.
>
>
>
> Ellen Moody
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
> --
>
> Anne E. Fernald <http://www.fordham.edu/info/24101/anne_fernald>
>
> Acting Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences
>
> Professor of English and Women's Studies
>
> fernald at fordham.edu
>
>
>
> Rose Hill: Cunniffe 211
>
> 718-817-3034
>
>
>
> Lincoln Center: Martino Hall 422
>
> 212-636-7613
>
>
>
>
>
>
>



-- 
Anne E. Fernald <http://www.fordham.edu/info/24101/anne_fernald>
Acting Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences
Professor of English and Women's Studies
fernald at fordham.edu

Rose Hill: Cunniffe 211
718-817-3034

Lincoln Center: Martino Hall 422
212-636-7613
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