[Vwoolf] Virginia Woolf: bi-polar

Wed Mar 7 14:50:05 EST 2018

 I want to support and amplify Brenda's words. I almost always note when
teaching Woolf that she lived with some sort of neuroaffective atypicality
and that some of her documented experiences look very similar to what is
today called bi-polar disorder, but that it is not something that we can
diagnose posthumously. I do this purposely to call into question compulsory
able-mindedness (a take on compulsory ablebodiedness) that crip theorists
such as Robert McRuer and Allison Kafer use to refute the assumption that
everyone is presumed to have normative bodies and normative minds, and that
(according to compulsory able mindedness) to be recognized as outside of
the normative ideal is somehow shameful. If we are ashamed or afraid to say
that Woolf might have had a condition like bipolar disorder, then we run
the risk of communicating the idea that to live with such a condition is
shameful.  I have had many students talk with me after class about their
own neuroaffective atypicalities and how important it is to discuss these
atypicalities in a non-stigmatizing but also non-romanticizing way. Woolf
gives us the tools in her own writing to begin such a conversation with our
students, so I think it blends in well with reading and teaching her works.

Best,
Madelyn

On Wed, Mar 7, 2018 at 2:29 PM, Kimberly Coates via Vwoolf <
vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> wrote:

> Hi, Brenda—
>
> No—you’re right. “Slapped” was a poor choice of words on my part. Kay
> Redfeld Jamison’s book* Touched with Fire* comes to mind. There’s plenty
> of evidence that substantiates your point that those diagnosed with
> bi-polar “share some positive mental traits linked to perception and
> creativity.” I don’t mind discussing the debates/discussion surrounding
> Woolf’s mental health with students; however, I don’t want them to fixate
> on any diagnoses retrospectively applied, especially when Woolf herself was
> so suspicious of doctors and their diagnostic labels and categories. That
> said, I completely agree that students who deal with these diagnoses on a
> daily basis can benefit from knowing that they share a struggle brilliant
> artists/minds like Woolf and Plath also were challenged by. I would rather
> students hear/listen to the struggles Woolf expresses by carefully reading
> her words vs getting hung up on any preconceived notions that come with
> diagnostic labels.
>
> Apologies for my poor choice of words! I think we’re on the same page.
>
> Best,
> Kim
>
> Kimberly Engdahl Coates, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of English
> Literature Program Coordinator
> Affiliate Faculty Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies/American Culture
> Studies/Honors Program
> Office: 403 East Hall
> Bowling Green State University
> Bowling Green, OH 43403
> kimbec at bgsu.edu
> 419-372-9189 <(419)%20372-9189>
> Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
>
>
>
>
> From: "Brenda S. Helt" <helt0010 at umn.edu>
> Date: Wednesday, March 7, 2018 at 1:46 PM
> To: Kimberly Coates <kimbec at bgsu.edu>, 'Ellen Moody' <
> ellen.moody at gmail.com>, 'Woolf list' <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
> Subject: RE: [Vwoolf] Virginia Woolf: bi-polar
>
> I may not be being entirely clear.  If we talk in the classroom about
> “bipolar” as a “label” that has been “slapped” on someone, we will
> inadvertently reinforce the stigma against bipolar disorder.  It’s a
> condition, a “disorder,” but appears to have been shared by some of the
> greatest minds and talents whose work we now idolize.  It could even have
> encouraged some of the positive traits these creative people shared.  I
> imagine the next “trend” in psychiatry will be to drop the word “disorder,”
> but it’s what psychiatrists call it at the moment.  It might have made
> Woolf more insightful about some things, more perceptive—her perspective
> different, “slanted” in the Dickinsonian sense.  There is in fact good
> evidence that folks with bipolar disorder share some positive mental traits
> linked to perception and creativity.  In the classroom, I emphasize this,
> because it’s true, and because although we cannot become writers like
> Virginia Woolf or poets like Plath by somehow “becoming” bipolar, it helps
> those who have bipolar “disorder” to realize they share that with Woolf and
> Plath.  And it helps their peers.
>
>
>
> To relate this convo to another we’ve long been having in the Woolf-world,
> we don’t want to *totalize* Woolf *as a* lesbian or *as* lesbian in a
> constrictive defining and limiting way, but nor do we talk about fearing we
> might “slap” the “label” of lesbian on Woolf, right?  Or of “queer.”  We
> can talk meaningfully about her queer perspective (in her work, in her
> letters, in her diaries, in what we know of her life) and how it seems to
> have empowered and enriched her life and work without *knowing exactly*
> what she did sexually with Vita or Leonard.  Nor do most of us now say in
> the classroom that *Woolf* would not have called herself “lesbian” or
> “bisexual” or “queer” and *therefore* we can’t use those terms to
> understand her or her life of her writing today.  We can talk about Woolf
> and bipolar disorder in *positive* ways in the classroom without
> “labeling” or “identifying” her or anyone “*as* bipolar.”  The things we
> struggle with in life can also enrich our lives and work—that might be a
> good direction to go with this topic in the classroom if it doesn’t sound
> too naive.
>
>
>
> Is this clearer?  I’ve probably made things worse . . .
>
>
>
> Brenda
>
>
>
>
>
> Brenda Helt
>
>
>
> Co-editor *Queer Bloomsbury*
>
> https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-queer-bloomsbury.html
> <https://secure-web.cisco.com/13ZSqULhnLs-NTc2H7edOedD7LzwsZ0WsXOQwM6jMe2DYWy39iChUJ03M9PQnKpk-2CXcqlJ0PSJqzTdiCz11FEAokAZkD6fu3gOlHE-aai_e6tKCKKnbToQNt0KoH5JnZ53Z8-e6NdNJUonkM8TMK88jkBU9p2OtSM_4cojCn1jPjxo-UxktgKbiw54EM6ISAYTArntqjYntJeSXbwPsXugOMg7WfIg89KMmaheJsWQujky7uiyVJZGUt-6jzzGPZuY_y6b0sgWUdII5jcnL7lF8CoKDq-9cSSQabBcvsyh_MzDuI50Fo-y2CUonpKJpGoDQj6hDC-q8hTXKOISsU0DVWrQVzgT8NaHvK98Zu6CuIButXVzD8nhH625IYQDd6rE1woDpvr6-BEu_Jf0V1KowHT_lEAdhXnMzVdGN1E0OsG9MuDLcFJOcJKUjQRN0MmqpCAHxsoDOatTB3mxKSAmuK9e2hSL0tE3zPAIHv1UdwLct_AUuQHGnZ6gVYwF9AM8Co2d3t9ENZh0aYfQYNw/https%3A%2F%2Fedinburghuniversitypress.com%2Fbook-queer-bloomsbury.html>
>
>
>
> Fine artist
>
> http://www.brendahelt.com
> <http://secure-web.cisco.com/1bejV8jhU3EQAl2p36h-gjrxZVnEMh4gCI_PPn6HJNwxBYnh4h9NZ_AsshfT5RtYef6vQwYyzOpWr7-BXwX7oQWPFFeZlWp6yY5GEUQf6gOaiLvdTTteKL5bAlJXs12NWKjjVOsDdl8GhuiwyOYgatnsfl5YWDLFBKE5kQv1OqYaIqv8A4pxNRMlrNBO-ZkuVJ8ZZVQQYjXaqgQOCfSnbBbs3h2KygHBJXEk2dpfxOR3XgrtYqyg6S3aC84-sEi97tac98L00EKpnP4yU5wpnhqoC-xZPF3rQdww7lcllNBWd_oVHAo3a-BKoz2UCMg9vF2XdMIZYoCxdGd7wNPT1qTe1hTFGkN7hehfKV19xqjLKtHytFZLpewiNgmb4ZEOoXcLiA4xLAuWRzSLzVNI8kxqzrKvCfm7iWvFBKKCMEQ4u7Ja1MX03KFk6vT2OH9kc7T8g5BkJ4h_SuEzUq12_9t9pSRMEgZjRqVrWkieH3jLJQ0_vgwALSZe2k2y0Y8yEZmDOvpqAOUsYBnul7kiGoQ/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brendahelt.com%2F>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Kimberly Coates [mailto:kimbec at bgsu.edu <kimbec at bgsu.edu>]
> *Sent:* Wednesday, March 07, 2018 10:20 AM
> *To:* Brenda S. Helt; 'Ellen Moody'; Woolf list
> *Subject:* Re: [Vwoolf] Virginia Woolf: bi-polar
>
>
>
> I agree with Brenda and Anne completely. I emphasize to students that
> words like “bi-polar” are diagnostic labels and they do not in anyway
> capture the experience of an individual on whom such a label has been
> slapped. We know how cynical Woolf was about doctor’s, labels, and
> diagnoses. I work hard to steer students away from fetishizing Woolf’s
> illness, and the labels that have retrospectively been applied to it, and
> ask them to concentrate instead on her words, the amazing capacity of her
> imagination, and her desire to render language a material, mobile
> expression of the sensations she and her characters experienced. A good
> place to start regarding Woolf’s stance on illness is, of course, her essay
> “On Being Ill.”
>
>
>
> All Best-
>
> Kim
>
>
>
>
>
> **********************************************
>
> Kimberly Engdahl Coates, Ph.D.
>
> Associate Professor of English
>
> Literature Program Coordinator
>
> Affiliate Faculty Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies/American Culture
> Studies/Honors Program
>
> Office: 403 East Hall
>
> Bowling Green State University
>
> Bowling Green, OH 43403
>
> kimbec at bgsu.edu
>
> 419-372-9189 <(419)%20372-9189>
>
> Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From: *Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces+kimbec=bgnet.bgsu.edu at lists.osu.edu> on
> behalf of "Brenda S. Helt via Vwoolf" <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
> *Reply-To: *"Brenda S. Helt" <helt0010 at umn.edu>
> *Date: *Wednesday, March 7, 2018 at 11:46 AM
> *To: *'Ellen Moody' <ellen.moody at gmail.com>, Woolf list <
> vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
> *Subject: *Re: [Vwoolf] Virginia Woolf: bi-polar
>
>
>
> 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://secure-web.cisco.com/1AuTMyVbk_4GOh7fcOs7DGYD1HQyYK6IA0e9FXSwi1KsVatPmLYq9Sqsxuq3nwfa9Vf65-y0sHUmn2WEyrL7z5VSoT7hLIkh9Xxt6GvetM4ZyR678PLMZtiWsYu2NWLCciYW-KdwTAflvs90FOlfnntgNV3qdspK6TLHBjKEL8qG4tgZEBRv8qbl9rjvwlLXic8jklIKb-P0GOXQ_GSGL24xho97iOiPnRvINVFf8q5Ew2Gf4HjYmTQGOKfrpwDoBCKsARFHxz__iWnot1TW06v2u9gQwPCOHWyBYLJB4dym_8MVwLLdCM5tg-MpaZoKv9OfHlDICpacj37Lv3Sfhdin-NP5bTQjafgCBmBWCly8TLvVGuJiKPqvYy14VbmvQrjGNkPTVoi2DSFn4hY7VuBylz_4S2SfJ1vlTFotONTeEztEmYNUKnTCAAZCu43s8wCqvnnBLrnqPgbw7NYICq3fbCoWYRF4-Gi6PyJ_vi5mKgAF5aAJG4jfkc5nIxPYGrU2Elt5HPAM67McZhfwN2IgTNtfmLtNYZZKx-Vse63M/https%3A%2F%2Fedinburghuniversitypress.com%2Fbook-queer-bloomsbury.html>
>
>
>
> Fine artist
>
> http://www.brendahelt.com
> <http://secure-web.cisco.com/1iB0yfMTYL_IYRiHN5b3MjvBh3EepKU_nAeT6LtPN3M0-opXmIHD3fbdURi53w7GclgulHlax3RUGV4wT1GERAVX66l1airQ6s_Ug1GGdJjTtv1dmI5v_I3Va93bKc_DPA1zQEd_Dxv13PRGTk8YDvWU4KHUjDI-Kc8FoKUWLieAb9WHKNH2m-Gk1BQnav-iYN8lIwwDKsKkd-ROiA6Nc_VpUJ6n9g226BrIcEbnbfIwIvvxFbijndyLaQ4ZDanX6daxkUauF8ODaLztjGR58nastPXTHJHjyGEeyknAsERT7eJ9KRg0ONtjbSKvd-5nfxHtRruPAb0ZAS9q7Spr1OL2ZDJoWHOGlRXaEQ-d9JR7Fw4T3uhTQJuMPI2hsA4XSRvatN4J9ePkDWVz5zc-FKsUGE2ySLneMPu3M9x6ocipLdZYaxIXmn6yaI8eNLTSbPEoHHf7-sye4tQKr8PJ3no4wQpyZY_FgPd661DL842mwHW1CsAyye6fNEsMbaocIRnxps2UnUVeZK4PystM_OokDbfI_9pdYMyvINB4KvnQ/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brendahelt.com%2F>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Vwoolf [mailto:vwoolf-bounces at lists.osu.edu
> <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
>
>
>
> How do or would others handle this.
>
>
>
> Ellen Moody
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
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>

-- 
Madelyn Detloff
Professor and Acting Chair, English Department
Professor, Global and Intercultural Studies Department
Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056
(513) 529-5221
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