The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (27 page)

Mixed manic depression has two effects on creative cyclothymes. During the depressive process long-established patterns of thought and behaviour are shaken and sometimes broken down, old beliefs and habits are lost, and for a space a kind of mental vacuum exists. At the same time manic ideas swirl through the mind, thoughts which are perhaps foreign to that person in his normal state, and some of these may replace or combine with the original patterns and ideas. A way of thinking is changed and a solution to a seemingly impossible problem follows. The painter's perception of the world is transformed. Virginia Woolf discovered ‘in one second … how I could embody all my deposit of experience in a shape that fitted it'.
38
She was being truthful when she said, ‘As an experience, madness is terrific'.
39

Virginia was actually mad on three occasions only. Leonard said she had a major breakdown after her mother's death in 1895 but there is no evidence to support this. For most of her life Virginia was sane. A change of mood could alter her outlook, sometimes radically, but she was always able to reason and communicate. Only when she broke down totally did she lose touch with reality, and become cut off from Leonard. Manic depressive attacks resolve eventually, unless there physical complications like the beginnings of dementia or syphilis, or the cyclothyme's environment discourages change, and Virginia always returned to complete sanity. Many great men and women have suffered and gained from cyclothymia. The seeds of a great work of art or literature, or a scientific theory, may originate in madness but can germinate and flower only in the sunlight of sanity.

*   *   *

The incidence of cyclothymia in Western populations approaches five per cent, but only about a third develop symptoms of manic depression. It is more common among the upper than lower classes, one explanation being that the inherited creative drive of hypomania has helped each generation of cyclothymes to succeed and rise up the social ladder and so congregate near the top. Another less persuasive suggestion is that the strain of upward social mobility brings on manic depression.

Manic depression occurs equally among men and women, although depressive illness in general is twice as common in women. The usual age of onset is between the late teens and mid-twenties, but the first signs of cyclothymia may be overlooked, and several years elapse before any abnormal behaviour is noticed.

Without lithium treatment manic depression is liable to be followed by recurrences, although many years may elapse between attacks. Cyclothymic swings can occur once or twice a year or at longer intervals, every second year or more. Less usual is ‘rapid cycling' – mood swings in quick succession over the course of the year – which occurs mainly in women (not in Virginia's case) and fails to respond to lithium.

With increasing age cyclothymia may worsen, but more from adversely changing circumstances and loss of hope than biological factors, and alcoholism and drug abuse are common complications. If much time is lost from work, many will lose their jobs, and the partner or spouse may lose patience and leave, and the ageing cyclothyme is liable to slide down the economic and social scale. The risk of suicide is high. Between 30 and 40 per cent attempt suicide at least once, and about one in five kill themselves.

The basic cause of cyclothymia remains unknown, but it has long been recognised that manic depression runs in families – ‘something in the blood' as the old wives said – and it is now generally accepted that the disease has a genetic basis. The genes have not been located, but that is only a question of time. Manic depression will not occur in the absence of the responsible genes; yet their presence does not always result in clinical cyclothymia because of what geneticists call ‘incomplete genetic penetration'.

Virginia Woolf's cyclothymic genes came through her father, Leslie Stephen, and his family can be traced back through four generations. The great-great-grandfather, James Stephen, came from Scotland, and at first prospered, but bouts of depression and hypomania caused him to ruin himself financially and to bring hardship to his wife and children. The great-grandfather worked alongside William Wilberforce to abolish the slave trade and became a force in Parliament. He may have been cyclothymic but he was always successful and never showed pronounced mental instability. Virginia's father and grandfather were both outstanding men who broke down several times with severe depression. Both had enormous drive and the ability to work with great intensity for long periods. All Virginia's full siblings were prone to depression and a first cousin, Jim Stephen, developed manic depression and died in an asylum in his early thirties.

The effect of cyclothymic genes is to set up a predisposition to depression and mania. Outside influences – such as emotional stress, brain injury or infections – have to be involved for clinical cyclothymia to be triggered. The complex brain mechanisms concerned are little understood, but it is known that mood changes correspond to alterations in the concentration of certain chemical neurotransmitters at neuronal terminals or synapses; hydroxy-tryptamine (serotonin) levels are low in depression and high in mania. But other neurotransmitters must also be involved, and the interactions result in variations of nervous inhibition and excitation.

Cyclothymia usually first develops against a background of anxiety rather than any specific upsetting event. Virginia became anxious and highly strung after the death of her mother, Julia, and again when her half-sister Stella, who had taken her mother's place, died two years later, but it was another year before cyclothymia commenced. Once established, her mood swung up and down with predictable regularity in line with the changing seasons. The late winter or early spring months between January and March were associated with depression (there was a comparatively minor and short-lived replay in the autumn); the early summer months with hypomania.

These changes are believed to be influenced by the amount of and intensity of light, together perhaps with the hormone, melatonin, and changes in the sleep/wake cycle. There are those (mostly women) who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), becoming depressed in the winter months and elated in summer, but they differ from cyclothymes in that when depressed they eat compulsively and sleep long and deeply; SAD is probably a separate disease.

Individual patterns of cyclothymia tend not to change, but the depth and height of swings depends on how stressful life is. If the cyclothyme is emotionally disturbed at the time a swing is due, biological and psychological forces join up to potentiate the mood change.

When Virginia led a quiet life, cyclothymic swings were minimal. When her life became rackety and stressful they were liable to be dangerously intense. Her first breakdown followed her father's death in February 1904, a vulnerable time, and the cyclothymic depression was reinforced by grief and ‘confusion' into madness. After recovering she lived quietly with the family, but when Vanessa married and had her first child, and Virginia began a flirtation with her husband, cyclothymic swings grew turbulent. The 1913 breakdown followed the strains of marriage and the New Year cyclothymic depression.

The strains and stresses in Virginia's life can be readily traced in the variability of her mood swings. Depressions brought about by events occurring outside expected cyclothymic times – and which therefore lacked biological force – had little intensity or persistence. All her major breakdowns were set off by powerful emotions, particularly grief and anger, combining with the cyclothymia.

The intensity of any emotional reaction is linked to temperament; the more highly strung and insecure the cyclothyme the greater the reaction – although outward signs do not always mirror the distress felt. Some authorities maintain that manic depressives are anxiety prone and over-sensitive, always craving affection and approval.
39
It was largely true for Virginia Woolf, and her dependence on one or two people made her particularly vulnerable to their loss or threatened loss. But many other types of personality exist among manic depressives and they cannot all be fitted into one compartment. Perhaps the most important quality for the cyclothyme's survival is the will to lead a purposeful life, however ravaged by cyclothymia, and to maintain a firm supportive relationship.

Every cyclothyme needs constant help from understanding companions. Many cyclothymes instinctively seek out an ideal person – early on Virginia acknowledged her need for a ‘maternal protector' – with whom they can develop a protective relationship. Cyclothymes such as Ruskin and Van Gogh, who failed to establish one, drifted inexorably into chronic mental illness.

A close lasting relationship with a cyclothyme is never easy. A partner has to be perceptive, have a character strong enough to dominate the cyclothyme at critical times, take charge when hypomania threatens to run out of control, and become mother to a child in deep depression. There is little resistance when the mood is one of despair, but hypomania brings argument and discord. The inconsistent behaviour tests love to the full and many marriages and relationships break up under the strain.

The Woolfs' marriage was never threatened. The 1913 breakdown, ghastly as it was, resulted in the resolution of many of Virginia's fears and strengthening of their relationship. Virginia's trust in Leonard was complete, and however depressed she might be she never doubted his loyalty. He was always her ‘strong linchpin'. In turn, Leonard confirmed his need for and admiration of Virginia and willingly took on the role of ‘maternal protector'. Virginia's relatives criticised him for being rigid, humourless and puritanical; her brother-in-law Clive Bell openly said that Leonard was making her lose her looks and sense of fun. It is true that Leonard did limit her social engagements and force her to leave a party before midnight, and insist she lead a quiet life, but by doing so he gave her the stability she needed for her writing. Virginia recognised that and ‘adored' him and willingly accepted his domination. Her health and work became Leonard's primary concerns, taking precedence over his own interests. Although he wrote and published much throughout their marriage, there was never any hint of rivalry between husband and wife.

In time their marriage grew in depth and resilience. The child/parent-like relationship of the first half gradually gave way to a more adult partnership. Leonard readily acknowledged his need for Virginia in the later years as he became depressed and insecure. Only in the final year or two did Leonard lose sight of Virginia and fail to notice, until too late, the unmistakable signs of madness.

There were other maternal protectors: her sister Vanessa, and a number of women at different times, but they paled beside Leonard. She could have had no better guardian and protector. Without Leonard she would probably have written none of her great innovative novels.

Virginia had no other protection. Neither of the Woolfs had a religious faith; Virginia had been brought up by determinedly agnostic parents, and Leonard was openly hostile to Christianity and organised religion. The Labour Party and, until 1935, the League of Nations, represented his faith but, while Virginia called herself a socialist, she was not really interested in political issues, and merely followed and supported Leonard. Feminism, and the related subject of pacifism, were her ideals and in her latter years she worked hard for them; but they could provide no shelter from manic depression.

Abbreviations

L
ETTERS AND
D
IARIES OF
V
IRGINIA
W
OOLF

Diary      The Diary of Virginia Woolf
5 vols. edited by Anne Olivier Bell and Andrew McNeillie (Hogarth Press, 1976–82 / Penguin Books, 1988)

Early Journals      Virginia Woolf A Passionate Apprentice: The Early Journals, 1897–1909
edited by Mitchell A. Leaska (Hogarth Press, 1990)

Moments of Being      Moments of Being: Unpublished Autobiographical Writings
edited and introduced by Jeanne Schulkind (Sussex, The University Press, 1976, and Grafton Books, 1985).

Letters      The Letters of Virginia Woolf
6 vols., 1975–1984, edited by Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann (Hogarth Press, vol 1 1975, vol 4 1978, vols 2, 3, 5, 6 1984)

Marler      Selected Letters of Vanessa Bell
edited by Regina Marler (Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd, 1993)

Nicolson      Vita and Harold: The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson
edited by Nigel Nicolson (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1992)

Spotts      Letters of Leonard Woolf
edited by Frederic Spotts (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989)

DeSalvo & Leaska      The Letters of Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf
edited by Louise DeSalvo and Mitchell A. Leaska (Virago Press, 1992)

Q
UOTED
W
ORKS BY
L
EONARD
W
OOLF