My Madness Saved Me

<p>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.</p><p>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.</p>