The Madness of Mary Lincoln
by Jason Emerson
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Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
Salesrank: 13003
Released: 2007-09-06List Price: $29.95
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Madness of Mary Lincoln (2008-04-12)
This was an incredibly well researched work. New material gave the feeling that the reader was part of the rollercoaster life of Mary Lincoln.Poor excuse for scholarship (2008-04-03)
This is one of the weakest books I have ever read on either of the Lincolns, and comes across largely as a toss-off result of his research on Robert T. Lincoln and his unbelievable (and seemingly wasted) discovery of previously unknown MTL letters. Emerson completely ignores the vast scholarship on Abraham Lincoln’s own mental illness, citing the exceptional work “Lincoln’s Melancholy,” but mentions nothing of his own severe depression. He completely dismisses the well-documented historical fact of women being committed to institutions against their will or need, particularly after being widowed, and there is no gender analysis of the public or medical response to Mary Lincoln’s erratic behavior. And even if she were, as Emerson claims, suffering from bipolar disorder, that hardly qualified her as “insane” or requiring hospitalization. Few women could have suffered as many tragic losses as she did - not the least of which was having her husband murdered as he sat beside her - and withstood it with complete strength and equanimity.
Worst of all seems to be the zero-sum value judgment Emerson seems to need to draw in order to redeem the negative reputation of R.T. Lincoln as a son - there is no nuance in either character’s behavior; M.T. Lincoln is completely nuts and therefore malicious, while R.T. Lincoln is the perfect understanding son trying to do what is best for his mother. Good history rarely ignores so many valuable sources or lacks any degree of nuance. This book unfortunately does both.Insight into this figure’s troubles (2008-02-22)
I found this book to lend key insight into the troubled mind of an often-misunderstood woman. I also found her relationship with Abraham Lincoln to be anything but “normal.” She was actually his second choice among her own sisters, and it appears theirs was a relationship fraught with extreme highs and lows, not always attributable solely to her flaws.
Initially a tad (no pun intended) eccentric, the horrors she experienced ultimately served to unravel her. Seeing her husband and children die before her very eyes was simply too much, leading to her confinement in a “home,” by her loving son Thomas. As is frequently the case in these matters, she felt that Thomas, a good and worthy man, had betrayed her and spent the remainder of her days vilifying him.
The writing is clear, though a bit plodding at times. An historian’s fascination with minutiae sometimes clouds the narrative flow, particularly for the casual reader.
Nevertheless, there is much to learn here, and much to recommend this woman’s sad tale.Retrospective diagnosis (2008-01-15)
I should say first that my own works on Mary Lincoln were generously referenced by Jason Emerson, with whom I had some correspondence as he prepared his book. My article, “Mary Lincoln’s Final Illness: A Medical and Historical Reappraisal” (with co-author the late Robert Feldman, a neurologist)was published in the Journal of the History of Medicine,1999, volume 54, 511-542; also “Mary Lincoln’s ‘Suicide’ Attempt: A Physician Reconsiders the Evidence”, published in the Lincoln Herald, 2003. I can make both articles available if you write to me at bertzpoet@yahoo.com.
Feldman and I show quite substantially that Mary Todd Lincoln suffered from a spinal cord degeneration called tabes dorsalis, and that the physicians who examined her in 1882 (commissioned to do so by Congress as it considered her plea for a pension) were experts in that disease. The signs and symptoms of that physical illness were the major pieces of ‘evidence’ to impute insanity at her trial. As for her delusional state in the run-up to the trial and just after, it is clear that this was a post-traumatic stress reaction to the 10th anniversary of her husband’s murder — it was not the first time that she had other, less severe, ‘anniversary’ reactions, something she herself recognized.
Although the diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder is interesting, given her high strung and volatile personality with a mania for shopping, it can only be conjecture. Curiously enough with only four months of being in the asylum (truly a rest home for her, no medications or constraint,)in the years following, she showed no more classic manifestations of Bipolar Disorder; in fact, rather mellowed and reconciled with her son.
Emerson’s book is splendidly written and a fine contribution to the field of Lincoln studies.
Norbert Hirschhorn MDHardly ‘Historical’ (2007-12-17)
My suggestion to people interested in the life of Mary Todd Lincoln is to read all available related material, including Jason Emerson’s book, and think critically as you do. I think it would be especially unwise to naively accept this book “The Madness of Mary Lincoln” as a true account of her life. While any reader will appreciate the copies of letters of correspondence between Mary Todd Lincoln and other important historical figures in this book’s appendix, I believe that readers will be and should be critical of the author’s work. This book consists of many contradictions (often within the same paragraph), a parochial attitude (not unlike many of the 19th century individuals being discussed), several assumptions, and too many unsupported arguments. Overall, my rating of “The Madness of Mary Lincoln” is low, because as an anthropologist I believe the author was overtly subjective under the pretence of being unbiased and I found this troubling. The author’s language says it all– from the beginning . . . The “Madness” of Mary Lincoln (emphasis mine). In Emerson’s epilogue he emphasizes that it is harmful to dichotomize these historical individuals as either villains or heroes and it is equally unwise to consider any story without it’s historical context. I agree with him and am astonished that he did not follow his own advice in this book. Mad In America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and The Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally IllTrauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence–from Domestic Abuse to Political TerrorMadness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
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