Did Mary Lincoln need committal?

[LincolnToddFan]

(04-05-2014 04:58 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(04-05-2014 04:34 AM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  a Dr James Brust-head of the Dept of Psychiatry at San Pedro Peninsula Hospital in California wrote than even today, the kind of behavior that Mary was exhibiting after Tad's death would require her to be institutionalized. I agree with Dr. Brust's opinion after reading the Emerson book and other bio's of Mary.

Hi Toia. You are so right about Dr. Brust. By chance have you seen the excellent book entitled The Mary Lincoln Enigma? There is an entire chapter in that book in which Dr. Brust deals in great detail with Mary's condition. As you mentioned he most definitely feels that Mary was in great need of help. He writes, "If we acknowledge the severity of Mrs. Lincoln's symptoms at the time of her commitment in 1875, we can see a major level of psychiatric illness. Her delusions and hallucinations caused erratic, irrational, and potentially dangerous behavior."

Hi Roger, yes I read that excellent book a couple of summers ago. I read it after the Emerson book...was it "The Madness of Mary Lincoln"? It's the one that has the cache of all the letters she wrote during her insanity trial and the aftermath.

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(04-05-2014 06:10 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  

(04-05-2014 04:34 AM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  If Mary had ended up harming herself or anyone else because Robert refused to take action, the blame would have fallen completely on him. He was head of the Lincoln family. He was responsible for her.

In one of Jason Emerson's books(can't remember which one) a Dr James Brust-head of the Dept of Psychiatry at San Pedro Peninsula Hospital in California wrote than even today, the kind of behavior that Mary was exhibiting after Tad's death would require her to be institutionalized. I agree with Dr. Brust's opinion after reading the Emerson book and other bio's of Mary.

He was responsible for her - from his point of view. However, the questionable point IMO is not that he did take action, but that he didn't look for and try another way first, leaving confinement as the very last instead of the first solution, plus what you said in your last passage (minus the last sentence) - the way he treated her and handled the affair.

Although sure the experts who all agreed on Mary's condition were right about this, to get a different point of view on the entire affair and Mary's condition, I recommend reading Samuel Schreiner's "The Trials of Mrs. Lincoln". It's (as for thoughts and dialogues) fiction, but based on facts (letters, documents, newspaper accounts, etc ), and IMO worth reading and considering if there might not have been a little grain of truth in the thoughts he put into Mary's mind and Robert's motives, especially regarding that she managed to get herself out of confinement in such a short time and managed the rest of her life quite well, including shopping habits and handling her financial affairs, plus that she never (again?) attempted suicide or to harm herself.

There's also another excellent and interesting book on the topic I read upon Roger's recommendation on this thread: "Mrs Mary Lincoln", by Willhelm Evans.

Hi Eva E!

Robert was responsible for his mother not only from his point of view but from the standards of the times in which he lived. She had a touch and go relationship with the only sister she still spoke to at all, Elizabeth Edwards. Her beloved Keckley had betrayed her. Tad was gone, Willie was gone, and most devastating of all her husband was gone. Mary was emotionally volatile in the best of times but after 1865 and most definitely after the death of Tad, she needed help.

Robert first tried hiring a companion for his mother, an Irish woman with the surname Fitzgerald. True to form, Mary fell out with her and kicked the woman out. Next he tried having his mother live with him, but she began harassing and firing Mary Harlan's servants which understandably caused problems between the two women. Even though Robert had his own young family to look after, he moved out of his home and into the hotel room next door. She began repeatedly banging on his door all night, insisting she was afraid and demanding that he sleep with her.

At that point the only option he had was to try and convince his mother to check herself voluntarily into a sanitarium for a time, which I can't see her ever agreeing to. I honestly don't see what else he could have done at that point? He wasn't after her money. He turned it over quite willingly to her with interest after she got herself released. And he was a wealthy man in his own right by then. I think it's feasible that he wanted to safeguard his mother's fortune from being lost or stolen, which is very likely to have happened if she'd continued wandering the streets with it stuffed into her clothes.

I think it is indeed interesting that after the traumatic experience of her trial and her committal to the institution, she was more or less "normal" the rest of her life albeit eccentric. There is no doubt in my mind that she suffered from PTSD, maybe even as early as the death of Willie or the 1863 carriage accident. And of course the trauma of the assassination permanently psychologically destroyed her.

Thanks for the suggestion of the Schreiner book, I read it many years ago and forgot all about it. I'll have to read it again.