Did Mary Lincoln need committal?

[RJNorton]

Here is one doctor's opinion. Dr. Norbert Hirschhorn researched this topic and wrote an article titled Mary Lincoln's 'Suicide Attempt:' A Physician Reconsiders The Evidence which was published in the Fall 2003 Lincoln Herald. Dr. Hirschhorn's concluding paragraphs are as follows:

"Opium, and its products, was a common agency of suicide in the mid-nineteenth century. Laudanum was easily accessible even from ethical purveyors without a physician's prescription, and could be downed impulsively and painlessly An analogous situation today is suicide by drinking pesticides.

One does not know, finally, what was on Mrs. Lincoln's mind that spring afternoon standing in front of Grand Pacific Hotel. But the pain of her chronic illness, the undoubted post-traumatic reaction to the tenth anniversary of her husband's murder, her public mortification during the hearing for insanity, the loss of her money and perceived betrayal by her son, and the prospect of incarceration, all sufficiently support the conclusion that her attempt was real, impulsive, but as a measure of her tenacity and strength of character, not to be repeated."