Manic-Depressive Psychosis and Critical Approaches to Virginia Woolf's Life and Work

Abstract

Although recent scientific discoveries about the genetic and biochemical components of manic-depressive psychosis have radically revised our understanding of the etiology and psychodynamics of this illness, psychological studies of Virginia Woolf's life and work have generally remained tied to Freud's outmoded model of loss-induced neurosis. This model appeals to critics because it readily imposes coherence on often inconsistent biographical data, but it fails to account for psychotic breakdowns and tends to disparage Woolf with its emphasis on the infantile and evasive aspects of art. Since Woolf's symptoms do fulfill the manic-depressive paradigm, a consideration of how contemporary psychiatric theory alters our reading of her life may also explain the therapeutic value of her bold experiments in fiction as well as her profound insights into subject-object transactions and the pitfalls of interpretation in general.

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