Overview

The vast literature on Virginia Woolf's life, work, and marriage falls into two groups. A large majority is certain that she was mentally ill, and a small minority is equally certain that she was not mentally ill but was misdiagnosed by psychiatrists. In this daring exploration of Woolf's life and work, Thomas Szasz--famed for his radical critique of psychiatric concepts, coercions, and excuses--examines the evidence and rejects both views. Instead, he looks at how Virginia Woolf, as well as her husband Leonard, used the concept of madness and the profession of psychiatry to manage and manipulate their own and each other's lives. Do we explain achievement when we attribute it to the fictitious entity we call ""genius""? Do we explain failure when we attribute it to the fictitious entity we call ""madness""? Or do we deceive ourselves the same way that the person deceives himself when he attributes the easy ignition of hydrogen to its being ""flammable""? Szasz interprets Virginia Woolf's life and work as expressions of her character, and her character as the ""product"" of her free will. He offers this view as a corrective against the prevailing, ostensibly scientific view that attributes both her ""madness"" and her ""genius"" to biological-genetic causes. We tend to attribute exceptional achievement to genius, and exceptional failure to madness. Both, says Szasz, are fictitious entities.

Full Product Details

Author:   Thomas Szasz
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Inc
Imprint:   Transaction Publishers
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.470kg
ISBN:  

9780765803214

ISBN 10:   0765803216
Pages:   170
Publication Date:   30 January 2006
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Temporarily unavailable  
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Table of Contents

Reviews

Thomas Szasz has created an extraordinary body of work, that continues to raise consequential challenges to the the prevailing myths of the culture of psychology. -- Tobias Wolff, PEN/Faulkner Award-winner, Stanford University <br> As only he can, Thomas Szasz summons forth the 'mad genius' image of Virginia Woolf as an emblem of the contradictions in our present Era of Psychopathology. Dr. Szasz has now harnessed his caustic intellect to the task of scrutinizing socio-cultural constructions of Virginia Woolf's character, marriage and myriad moods. The result is a field guide to psychiatric absurdity, one peopled by the legendary Bloomsbury circle of intellectuals and their camarades in psychoanalysis, art, literature and publishing, who make up the multiple dimensions, some real, some less real, of Virginia's 'mental illness.' [In My Madness Saved Me ] Szasz delivers spirited vignettes about Virginia's own role in her series of 'breakdowns, ' Leonard Woolf's ambiguous caretaking career and, of course, our society's need to use psychiatry as a form of social control. -- Elizabeth Ann Danto, Hunter College, City University of New York <br> During the past century Virginia Woolf's insanity and the involvement of the Bloomsbury Group in the early manifestations of Freudian psychiatry assumed a distinctly mythic place in the annals of what was called Modern Literature. A rather swampy, not to say smelly, pedanticism grew up around it, involving the whole question of mental illnedd vis--vis artistic talent. Meanwhile a good number of us became crazy ourselves. We knew that much of this was nonsense. But we had small success in combating it. Now, like a cool wind from the prairie Thomas Szasz brings Tankee common sense and objectivity to dispel the romantic and emotional idiocy that beclouds this sector of our intellectual past. May I recommend this clear vision and cool reasonableness to all my fellow psychiatric survivors? This is a matter that shouldy

Thomas Szasz has created an extraordinary body of work, that continues to raise consequential challenges to the the prevailing myths of the culture of psychology. -- Tobias Wolff, PEN/Faulkner Award-winner, Stanford University As only he can, Thomas Szasz summons forth the 'mad genius' image of Virginia Woolf as an emblem of the contradictions in our present Era of Psychopathology. Dr. Szasz has now harnessed his caustic intellect to the task of scrutinizing socio-cultural constructions of Virginia Woolf's character, marriage and myriad moods. The result is a field guide to psychiatric absurdity, one peopled by the legendary Bloomsbury circle of intellectuals and their camarades in psychoanalysis, art, literature and publishing, who make up the multiple dimensions, some real, some less real, of Virginia's 'mental illness.' [In My Madness Saved Me ] Szasz delivers spirited vignettes about Virginia's own role in her series of 'breakdowns, ' Leonard Woolf's ambiguous caretaking career and, of course, our society's need to use psychiatry as a form of social control. -- Elizabeth Ann Danto, Hunter College, City University of New York During the past century Virginia Woolf's insanity and the involvement of the Bloomsbury Group in the early manifestations of Freudian psychiatry assumed a distinctly mythic place in the annals of what was called Modern Literature. A rather swampy, not to say smelly, pedanticism grew up around it, involving the whole question of mental illnedd vis--vis artistic talent. Meanwhile a good number of us became crazy ourselves. We knew that much of this was nonsense. But we had small success in combating it. Now, like a cool wind from the prairie Thomas Szasz brings Tankee common sense and objectivity to dispel the romantic and emotional idiocy that beclouds this sector of our intellectual past. May I recommend this clear vision and cool reasonableness to all my fellow psychiatric survivors? This is a matter that shoulds

Thomas Szasz has created an extraordinary body of work, that continues to raise consequential challenges to the the prevailing myths of the culture of psychology. -- Tobias Wolff, PEN/Faulkner Award-winner, Stanford University <br> As only he can, Thomas Szasz summons forth the 'mad genius' image of Virginia Woolf as an emblem of the contradictions in our present Era of Psychopathology. Dr. Szasz has now harnessed his caustic intellect to the task of scrutinizing socio-cultural constructions of Virginia Woolf's character, marriage and myriad moods. The result is a field guide to psychiatric absurdity, one peopled by the legendary Bloomsbury circle of intellectuals and their camarades in psychoanalysis, art, literature and publishing, who make up the multiple dimensions, some real, some less real, of Virginia's 'mental illness.' [In My Madness Saved Me ] Szasz delivers spirited vignettes about Virginia's own role in her series of 'breakdowns, ' Leonard Woolf's ambiguous caretaking career and, of course, our society's need to use psychiatry as a form of social control. -- Elizabeth Ann Danto, Hunter College, City University of New York <br> During the past century Virginia Woolf's insanity and the involvement of the Bloomsbury Group in the early manifestations of Freudian psychiatry assumed a distinctly mythic place in the annals of what was called Modern Literature. A rather swampy, not to say smelly, pedanticism grew up around it, involving the whole question of mental illnedd vis--vis artistic talent. Meanwhile a good number of us became crazy ourselves. We knew that much of this was nonsense. But we had small success in combating it. Now, like a cool wind from the prairie Thomas Szasz brings Tankee common sense and objectivity to dispel the romantic and emotional idiocy that beclouds this sector of our intellectual past. May I recommend this clear vision and cool reasonableness to all my fellow psychiatric survivors? This is a matter that shouldh

Thomas Szasz has created an extraordinary body of work, that continues to raise consequential challenges to the the prevailing myths of the culture of psychology. -- Tobias Wolff, PEN/Faulkner Award-winner, Stanford University <br> As only he can, Thomas Szasz summons forth the 'mad genius' image of Virginia Woolf as an emblem of the contradictions in our present Era of Psychopathology. Dr. Szasz has now harnessed his caustic intellect to the task of scrutinizing socio-cultural constructions of Virginia Woolf's character, marriage and myriad moods. The result is a field guide to psychiatric absurdity, one peopled by the legendary Bloomsbury circle of intellectuals and their camarades in psychoanalysis, art, literature and publishing, who make up the multiple dimensions, some real, some less real, of Virginia's 'mental illness.' [In My Madness Saved Me ] Szasz delivers spirited vignettes about Virginia's own role in her series of 'breakdowns, ' Leonard Woolf's ambiguous caretaking career and, of course, our society's need to use psychiatry as a form of social control. -- Elizabeth Ann Danto, Hunter College, City University of New York <br> During the past century Virginia Woolf's insanity and the involvement of the Bloomsbury Group in the early manifestations of Freudian psychiatry assumed a distinctly mythic place in the annals of what was called Modern Literature. A rather swampy, not to say smelly, pedanticism grew up around it, involving the whole question of mental illnedd vis--vis artistic talent. Meanwhile a good number of us became crazy ourselves. We knew that much of this was nonsense. But we had small success in combating it. Now, like a cool wind from the prairie Thomas Szasz brings Tankee common sense and objectivity to dispel the romantic and emotional idiocy that beclouds this sector of our intellectual past. May I recommend this clear vision and cool reasonableness to all my fellow psychiatric survivors? This is a matter that shoulda

Thomas Szasz has created an extraordinary body of work, that continues to raise consequential challenges to the the prevailing myths of the culture of psychology. -- Tobias Wolff, PEN/Faulkner Award-winner, Stanford University <br> As only he can, Thomas Szasz summons forth the 'mad genius' image of Virginia Woolf as an emblem of the contradictions in our present Era of Psychopathology. Dr. Szasz has now harnessed his caustic intellect to the task of scrutinizing socio-cultural constructions of Virginia Woolf's character, marriage and myriad moods. The result is a field guide to psychiatric absurdity, one peopled by the legendary Bloomsbury circle of intellectuals and their camarades in psychoanalysis, art, literature and publishing, who make up the multiple dimensions, some real, some less real, of Virginia's 'mental illness.' [In My Madness Saved Me ] Szasz delivers spirited vignettes about Virginia's own role in her series of 'breakdowns, ' Leonard Woolf's ambiguous caretaking career and, of course, our society's need to use psychiatry as a form of social control. -- Elizabeth Ann Danto, Hunter College, City University of New York <br> During the past century Virginia Woolf's insanity and the involvement of the Bloomsbury Group in the early manifestations of Freudian psychiatry assumed a distinctly mythic place in the annals of what was called Modern Literature. A rather swampy, not to say smelly, pedanticism grew up around it, involving the whole question of mental illnedd vis--vis artistic talent. Meanwhile a good number of us became crazy ourselves. We knew that much of this was nonsense. But we had small success in combating it. Now, like a cool wind from the prairie Thomas Szasz brings Tankee common sense and objectivity to dispel the romantic and emotional idiocy that beclouds this sector of our intellectual past. May I recommend this clear vision and cool reasonableness to all my fellow psychiatric survivors? This is a matter that shoulde

Author Information

Thomas Szasz is professor of psychiatry emeritus at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. His A Lexicon of Lunacy, Liberation by Oppression, Words to the Wise, and Faith in Freedom, are available from Transaction.

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