I think you know your readers. Whether you deserve them is another matter. But I for one would love to see a case for hating that piece and wonder if they'll step up. And it was in the fashion/style section because the form of writing befits a stylist. The form that can't be argued with, and rises above in all its glory.

Well, what's your opinion of the article Robin?

Ahhh-what a well-written article. It reminded me of the days when I used to read the Seattle Weekly when the well-known writer Philip Dawdy had creative writing privileges. I can only hope those days return one day soon. Great find Philip!

What do you expect from the comment section exactly flawedplan; baited condemnation or validation?

You could easily replace the words "Mental Illness" in this piece with words like sensitivity, melancholy, human condition, reaction to environmental/developmental/social factors, constitutional variation, and like verse; but then it would steal all the thunder of a psych label away.

That glaring omission obviously in this particular case would give you nothing to get vile or judgmental over. Such a pity.

Beautifully written, but I can't help but wonder if substance abuse is a part of the madness. The article doesn't say. It would certainly take a bit of the mystery out of it all if we knew this piece of information.

I suppose I get a bit weary of this link with mental illness and the struggling, but brilliant artist. What if most of those artists, writers, musicians had to accept that they are simply average? What if the poet's poetry really does suck? Or the writer's novel is mediocre at best? What if people had to accept that they have a substance abuse problem, instead of getting to blame it on their brilliant madness?

Again, I don't know if substance abuse is an issue in this story. It sure would be interesting to know, however.

I read it and walked away thinking the author was not and does not sound floridly psychotic.

It strikes me as hypocritical as well, because she truly is NOT in the same position as "margaret" (who does sound bizarre and genuinely psychotic, who she clearly does judge to this day as a non-human symbol of "insanity" even after her so called psychotic break which supposedly equalized her).

It's kind of how someone sprains an ankle and thinks they understand paraplegia. Um, not really you don't. Sure you can't walk too well right now, but it just isn't the same. The sprain will heal in a few weeks and it did not totally disable you from the walking world when you had it.

And you know I could deal with that, if only the author did not have such a thinly veiled judgment/dislike of the genuinely mentally ill... you know, not your axl rose glamorous genius-psuedobipolar case, but the guy on the street corner talking to himself, homeless and abandoned. Real mental illness. Not a fashion trend or excuse but a serious unambiguous disease.

Sorry, did not like.

Maybe I'm wrong and she really was/is seriously mentally ill, but it doesn't sound like it. Psychotic people don't usually remember what they did and they definitely can't remember their thought processes with detail the way she seems to (guilt leading her to break into peoples houses to clean them and such, and having the "realization" [read:insight] that she too had become crazy... that just sounds so bogus I wonder if it even actually happened, insight by definition excludes psychosis, and trust me when you are around a real psychotic person there is no insight to be found what so ever).

Interesting that a piece on mental illness is in the "fashion & style" section. For some financially and socially privileged folk, like the kids in the NPR piece referenced a few days ago on this blog and the writer of this piece, a psych label is a trendy fashion accessory that gets you money, special treatment, and supposedly adds depth to your art.

You know, if you didn't like that poem re-read it now knowing the writer was afflicted with social anxiety disorder. I mean her palms sweat and stuff, give it a second chance...

But much like cocaine, another trendy fashion accessory that the privileged are allowed to abuse with relative impunity, psych labels harm so many.

Cocaine, if you're rich is lines of clean powder on cleaned mirrors to keep you euphoric and svelte, though of course in the end, like a psych label, cocaine usually has deleterious effects on the life of even the wealthiest user.

But for the poor person, cocaine means low quality crack with barely any cocaine in it, toxic, addictive and of course with much, much stiffer criminal sanctions including prison, than the trendy coke user will ever suffer.

Meanwhile, the homeless guy labeled as schizophrenic is haldoled into a chemical straight jacket, where he must lie defenseless unable to care for or protect himself in the grimey filth of a state psychiatric hospital or out in the open, homeless with a stigma worse than that of a crack head.

The rich kid goes to Betty Ford, for a dual diagnosis of addictive personality and bipolar disorder, the poor kid goes to Rikers and then the Salvation Army shelter with a dual diagnosis of addictive personality disorder and schizoaffective personality disorder.

I'm not sure how to tie this in with Lisa's excellent point about substance abuse, but it's interesting to contemplate.

This entire comment thread has made my blood boil, and I have no clue about where to let off the steam. Let me try.

@noone 3:37 Margaret is indeed a real person. At Yale, she was called "The Shakespeare Lady". It has been my experience at such schools that these local icons are beyond classification and approached in awe as other-worldly. But to say that the author considered her non-human is a bit of a stretch.

I am also disappointed at your rigid definitions and preconceptions of psychosis and am concerned at your lack of empathy for the writer. Her experience was no less real than that of the underprivileged (and let's face it, the poorly educated and the consistently inarticulate) people you ostensibly champion. For some articulate, gifted people, to go to the other side provides a great deal of insight. They then return and tell us what they saw, like this author. I can only walk away from your remarks feeling that you're disappointed that she doesn't seem to need a shrink as an intermediary for her experiences.

@sally 5:49 Some fatuous punk wrote one time that, "The rich aren't like the rest of us." I regret to inform you that he was right.

I've found that the rich get an entirely different sort of mental health professional than the rest of us. These mental health people are like them, very educated and jaded. But they also know that the rich simply consider them another servant and they'll be fired and replaced if they don't meet entertainment expectations.

The rich also have the spare time and the ways and means to sample all of the forbidden fruit and I mean ALL of it--Marxism (and they do read a lot of Marx at places like Yale), red meat, drugs, homosexual relations and even madness. Pretty much everything they tell the rest of us to disparage and avoid, they think and do, or at least they've tried it once and didn't like it. It pretty much sucks to be the rest of us.

"red meat and homosexual relations" are forbidden fruit? Uh, okay. I was gonna respond to you, but after reading that I deleted it all.

Shows what Prozac can do to you. Here she was a normal Drama major [oxymoron?] with a quirk of hiding in her room for a couple of weeks at a time. Sounds about average. Then she takes Prozac and suddenly really does start to go insane. Of course she is clueless.

Well written piece with strong attempts to be poetic but she is basically having "abnornal thinking" which is listed as a side-effect of Prozac in the PDR.

SSRI Stories posted a case of Prozac where a man was found not guilty of assault by a jury the day before yesterday. Get this. He was an inmate in a correctional institution. Would love to read the transcript of that trial. Here is the story [in part]:

http://www.ssristories.com/show.php?item=3714

Paragraphs nine through twelve read: "However, he testified he believed high dosages of Prozac, an anti-depressant prescribed to him at the prison and jail, influenced his behavior."

"It made him feel like he wanted jump out of his skin, he said. Housworth told jurors he never intended to hurt anyone."

"During the time he's spent in youth shelters, jails and prisons, Housworth said he had nothing but "minor write-ups" until he began taking Prozac in 40-milligram to 90-milligram dosages at the local prison and jail."

"He said he never stopped taking the drug because he was 70 days shy of parole in June 2007, and then he signed a parole agreement specifying he would take his prescribed medications."

Paragraphs fourteen and fifteen read: "Dr. Mark Goodman, a local clinical psychologist who evaluated Housworth, testified for the defense he believed the high dosage of Prozac prescribed to Housworth at the prison and jail caused his aggressive behavior."

"Goodman said the recommended Prozac dosage for an adult was 20 to 80 milligrams, and he believed the high dosages given to Housworth, combined with Housworth's "bipolar features" and "anger history," rendered him unable to reason appropriately."

http://www.hutchnews.com/Todaystop/trial2009-10-23T20-32-29

Saturday, October 24, 2009 4 : 14 PM

Meds defense a success

Former prisoner acquitted in batteries he blames on Prozac.

By Darcy Gray The Hutchinson News dgray@hutchnews.com

Me too noone.

I agree with Rosie that that article is nothing but a great, poetic description of Prozac induced insanity and another example of a sensitive person latching on to her biopsychiatric label like it explains everything without bringing to the equation one iota of critical thinking. It's a tragic reflection on our times.

I couldn't figure out the point of this article. Maybe I need to go back on my meds. {;>)

Just to clarify for people, this essay was in the "Modern Love" department of the Sunday Styles section of the NYT. "Modern Love" is always about relationships; mostly romantic ones but sometimes familial or regarding other "significant others." The essay was ostensibly about the role of "Margaret" in the author's life, hence its placement.

I didn't particularly like it; not sure why but I think it's because I don't care for poetic "confessional" type writing, with or without mental illness....

I really liked the article. My experience with mental illness is a bit like the author's. I was depressed due to my own emotional immaturity, a rough life, and stress, and I went on an antidepressant, and really got strange.

The article wasn't really about causes of mental illness, or about treatment. It was just about that one woman's experience. I found it touching.

A,

The problem with the article is precisely that the writer, as you put it, was troubled due to her own immaturity, a normal response to life, and she, possibly due to "therapy" and drugs, has come to view this normal unhappiness and questioning of reality as a disease. If she'd used her experience realize that we all suffer instead of using it to make her feel special and privileged, I might have been touched.

I don't understand how folks here feel they can tell whether or not the author was "really" psychotic based on the information given, since she glossed over the details. We don't even know if she was still on the antidepressant at the time her irrational thoughts started.

As for whether or not she'd remember a psychotic episode -- I'm no expert on psychosis, but my friend with schizophrenia has some amusing stories about trying to figure out where her voices were coming from and how to make them go away, before she realized they weren't real. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that people spying on you is not a normal developmental stage.

I saw empathy rather than entitlement. The only part I didn't like was the rather melodramatic beginning. I probably wouldn't have read the thing to begin with, except these comments intrigued me.

Those who disagree, please explain; I have an open mind.