[Vwoolf] Virginia Woolf: bi-polar

[Diane Reynolds]

Ellen,

I have not had this question come up in class, but it is topical and relevant. In my Quaker meeting, we have concerns about gun control being off-loaded, as it were, onto the mentally ill, however, that term is defined, and we fear it will lead to further stigmatization of mental illness, especially bi-polar disorders—and of course, Woolf feared the consequences of her illness. What I would emphasize with Woolf,  is that mental illness is increasingly understood to come out of childhood trauma and that while it is biological to some extent, our brain biology actually changes to become more “depressive” as a result of trauma. This is in an interesting article: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/02/will-take-political-revolution-cure-epidemic-depression.html <https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/02/will-take-political-revolution-cure-epidemic-depression.html> that makes the point that if we want to reduce mental illness, we need to fix society. This seems to me, in the context of Woolf, a good launching point for trying to imagine what it was like trying to grow up in that Victorian household with abusive half brothers, a self-absorbed father, a mother stretched too thin who labeled her “goat” and the whole set of oppressive mores—you well know the drill—that beset her. 
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