Did Mary Lincoln need committal?

[RJNorton]

I know the depth of love I feel for my wife, and I cannot imagine the heartache of holding hands with her and having her shot in the head. I know I would never be the same again. I don't know if it would make me crazy or not, but I know it would have a profound effect on my future behavior and thoughts. I would never recover, and if others termed me "weird" then sobeit. It's hard for me to understand how anyone could totally recover from such an experience. Would I have unreal fears like Mary did? Probably.

I agree with Jason on most things, but I think I part with him here, although I think people define "insanity" in different ways. Like Bill, I think Robert was sincere in wanting to do what he felt was best for his mother, but I think he was misled into being more worried about her than was necessary. I think the whole thing could have been handled in some other way than it was...much more privately rather than a public display. I do think she needed special care at this point in her life, but couldn't something have been done in a more private manner? Could she have gone straight to live with Elizabeth and Ninian without the stop at Bellevue?

I do agree with Donna that the behaviors observed were odd. I can relate to at least one of them. I think it was testified that in her hotel she was half-dressed and entered an elevator thinking it was a washroom. Do I ever enter a room and then realize it's not the room I had intended to enter? Yep. Was there a bathroom in her room? To me, anyway, her behavior was odd, but it doesn't meet my personal feeling of what true insanity is. She seemed to have lots of fears when she was in that hotel, so who knows what was in her mind. Some of her behaviors and fears are indeed difficult to explain, though.