A First-Rate Madness (37 page)

Acknowledgment is an unsatisfactory word for my deepest debts. My father, Kamal Ghaemi, MD, bequeathed to me loves of apparently incompatible things: history, politics, and philosophy on one hand; medicine, science, and psychology on the other. A cloud of family witnesses deserve gratitude: especially my mother, Guity Kamali Ghaemi, my late grandfather, Mohammad Mehdi Kamali, and my late aunt, Golnoush Kamali, who bore severe mental illness with nobility of soul. My family—my wife, Heather, and my children, Valentine and Zane—lived through the very slow gestation of this book; they listened and talked and laughed with me along the way. Heather saw potential in this project long before I did, and steadily encouraged me to keep going with it. In the process, a semicircle of Valentine's Babies and Zane's Legos and toy solidier regiments, cluttering the office floor, provided pleasant writing company, as did Roscoe. I have one last, old debt. Emerson said a teacher never knows where his influence will end. Decades ago, Thomas Bott—my sixthgrade teacher at Churchill Road Elementary School in McLean, Virginia—sparked my interest in Civil War history, applauding dozens of my reports, until finally he said I could stop writing. I never really did.

The epigraph from Aristotle is drawn from Anna Lydia Motto and John R. Clark, trans., “The Paradox of Genius and Madness: Seneca and His Influence,” in
Cuadernos de Filología Clásica,
189–199 (Madrid: Editorial Complutense, 1992). The epigraph from Jack Kerouac is drawn from the Penguin Classics edition (New York, 2002), 5.

 

 

1
“In these times it is hard to say”:
Michael Fellman,
Citizen Sherman: A Biography of William Tecumseh Sherman
(New York: Random House, 1995), 100.

2
a genetic link:
Ibid., 98.

2
the work of historian Michael Fellman:
Citizen Sherman
.

3
Cesare Lombroso defined that link forcefully:
Cesare Lombroso,
The Man of Genius
(New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1891). Lombroso's work was also later followed by Wilhelm Lange-Eichbaum in
The Problem of Genius
(New York: Macmillan, 1931). Lange-Eichbaum emphasized the role of followers rather than leaders, which I discuss in chapter 14.

3
Francis Galton . . . the opposing view:
Francis Galton,
Hereditary Genius
(New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1870).

3
Four key elements of some mental illnesses:
Juan Francisco Galvez, Sairah Thommi, and S. Nassir Ghaemi, “Positive Aspects of Mental Illness: A Review in Bipolar Disorder,”
Journal of Affective Disorders
128, no. 3 (2011): 185–190. See also Hagop S. Akiskal and Kareen K. Akiskal, “In Search of Aristotle: Temperament, Human Nature, Melancholia, Creativity and Eminence,”
Journal of Affective Disorders
100 (2007): 1–6; Kay Jamison,
Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament
(New York: Free Press, 1996).

5
“[Wilson] carried great burdens”:
Sigmund Freud and William C. Bullitt,
Woodrow Wilson: A Psychological Study
(Piscataway, NJ: Transaction, 1967), 197.

7
Four specific lines of evidence have become standard in psychiatry:
Ming Tsuang and Mauricio Tohen, eds.,
Textbook in Psychiatric Epidemiology,
2nd ed. (New York: Wiley-Liss, 2002).

8
antidepressants can cause mania:
Frederick K. Goodwin and Kay R. Jamison,
ManicDepressive Illness,
2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

12
“Mania is extremity for one's friends”:
J. Meyers, ed.,
Robert Lowell: Interviews and Memoirs
(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1988), 7.

13
“To see a world in a grain of sand”:
Alexander Gilchrist and Anne Burrows Gilchrist,
Life of William Blake
(New York: Macmillan, 1863), 94.

14
“For months / My madness gathered strength”:
Ian Hamilton,
Robert Lowell: A Biography
(New York: Random House, 1982), 256. This is an unpublished section of the poem, based on early drafts described by Lowell's biographer Ian Hamilton. The final poem is called “Home After Three Months Away,” and it relates to being psychiatrically hospitalized at McLean Hospital soon after the birth of one of his children, with Lowell's heartache at missing his new baby. Lowell removed all except the last line for the final published poem, suggesting perhaps his continuing struggle to understand and accept his manic-depressive illness.

14
The psychoanalytic view . . . is the most coherent:
David S. Janowsky, Melitta Leff, and Richard S. Epstein, “Playing the Manic Game: Interpersonal Maneuvers of the Acutely Manic Patient,”
Archives of General Psychiatry
22, no. 3 (1970): 252–261.

14
Mania often occurs without any preceding depression:
Athanasios Koukopoulos and S. N. Ghaemi, “The Primacy of Mania: A Reconsideration of Mood Disorders,
European Psychiatry
24, (2009): 125–134.

15
Our basic temparaments are set by the time we reach kindergarten:
A. Caspi and P. A. Silva, “Temperamental Qualities at Age Three Predict Personality Traits in Young Adulthood,”
Child Development
66 (1995): 486–498.

17
These temperaments were described:
The insights about temperament in the classic work of Kretschmer have since been validated and replicated with numerous empirical studies (although his views about the relation of physical body type to personality have not). Ernst Kretschmer,
Physique and Character
(New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1925). Hagop Akiskal and Kareen Akiskal, “Cyclothymic, Hyperthymic, and Depressive Temperaments as Subaffective Variants of Mood Disorders,” in
American Psychiatric Press Review of Psychiatry,
vol. 11, ed. Allan Tasman, 43–62 (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 1992).

17
“The brilliant enthusiast, the radical fanatic”:
Ernst Kretschmer,
The Psychology of Men of Genius
(London: Kegan Paul; New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1931), 13.

23
asked . . . Liddell-Hart to write a book:
B. H. Liddell-Hart,
Sherman: Solder, Realist, American
(New York: Da Capo, 1993).

24
“There is many a boy here”:
John Marszalek,
Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2007), 447.

24
This task was taken up by Michael Fellman:
Lee W. Formwalt, “An American Historian North of the Border: A Conversation with Michael Fellman,”
Organization of American Historians Newsletter
36 (2008).

25
Fellman discovered depressive tendencies in Robert E. Lee:
Michael Fellman,
The Making of Robert E. Lee
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003).

25
outright mental illness in General Sherman:
Michael Fellman,
Citizen Sherman: A Biography of William Tecumseh Sherman
(New York: Random House, 1995).

25
“think of many different and unusual uses”:
Richard S. Mansfield and Thomas V. Busse,
The Psychology of Creativity and Discovery
(Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1981), 4.

26
a two-phase process:
Ibid.

26
“Exuberant behavior and emotions”:
Kay R. Jamison,
Exuberance: The Passion for Life
(New York: Knopf, 2004), 150–151.

27
one study found that Robert E. Lee set the standard:
Dean Keith Simonton,
Greatness: Who Makes History and Why
(New York: Guilford, 1994), 80.

27
One who has tried is Tom Wootton:
Tom Wootton,
Bipolar in Order
(Tiburon, CA: Bipolar Advantage Publishing, 2009).

28
leaving him bankrupt:
Fellman,
Citizen Sherman,
60–68.

28
“I am of course used up root and branch”:
Ibid., 63.

29
“I am doomed to be a vagabond”:
Ibid., 66.

29
He saw fault on both sides:
Ibid., 77–83.

29
Sherman declined to vote:
Marszalek,
Sherman,
135.

30
In
Citizen Sherman,
Fellman describes:
Fellman,
Citizen Sherman,
95.

30
“lapse into long silent moods”:
Ibid., 96.

30
“I am up all night”:
Ibid., 96–97.

31
“He has had little or no sleep:
Ibid., 98.

31
Sherman's brother John:
Ibid.

31
“I see no hope at all”:
Ibid., 106.

31
“such nervousness that [Sherman] was unfit for command”:
Ibid., 100.

31
“I should have committed suicide”:
Ibid., 107.

32
“an abrupt spiritual rebirth”:
Ibid., 117.

32
“We are absolutely stripping the country”:
Ibid., 145.

32
“To secure the safety”:
Ibid., 147–148.

32
“He stood by me when I was crazy”:
R. W. Johnson,
A Soldier's Reminiscences in Peace and War
(Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1886), 308.

33
In his
Memoirs,
Grant credits Sherman:
Ulysses S. Grant,
Memoirs and Selected Letters
(New York: Literary Classics of the United States, 1990), 652–653.

33
“The unprecedented measure you propose”:
Fellman,
Citizen Sherman,
186.

33
“You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm”:
Reprinted in William Tecumseh Sherman,
Memoirs of General William T. Sherman,
vol. 2 (New York, 1875), 600–602.

34
Said the . . .
Army and Navy Gazette:
Irwin Silber, ed.,
Songs of the Union
(Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1995), 15.

35
When Sherman was close to Savannah:
John George Nicolay and John Hay,
Abraham Lincoln: A Memoir
(New York: The Century Company, 1890).

35
“If the people raise a howl”:
Fellman,
Citizen Sherman,
180.

35
“War is cruelty”:
Ibid., 182.

35
“My aim then was to whip the rebels”:
Ibid., ix.

36
“a marvelous talk about a march to the sea”:
Lee Kennett,
Sherman: A Soldier's Life
(New York: HarperCollins, 2002), 257.

36
“I attach much more importance”:
Sherman,
Memoirs,
1008.

36
Wrote a Michigan soldier:
Fellman,
Citizen Sherman,
224.

37
“bore their afflictions with some manliness”:
Ibid., 231.

37
“It might be well to instruct your brigade commanders”:
Ibid., 232.

37
Lee himself may have been dysthymic:
Michael Fellman,
The Making of Robert E. Lee
.

40
In his recent autobiography:
Ted Turner,
Call Me Ted
(New York: Grand Central, 2008).

40
“I was a restless kid”:
Ibid., 4.

40
“Today's schools would probably jump to the conclusion”:
Ibid., 4–5.

41
narrowly missed being run over by a train:
Ibid., 37.

41
“I have always had a lot of energy”:
Ibid., 259.

41
“As a result of his upbringing”:
Ibid., 329.

41
“The fall of 1962 was an exciting time”:
Ibid., 56.

42
“My father knew the billboard business”:
Ibid., 56.

42
“He said they were for ‘his nerves'”:
Ibid., 56–57.

43
“I'd had some problems with mood swings”:
Ibid., 263–264.

43
about 40 percent of people with bipolar disorder were misdiagnosed:
S. Nassir Ghaemi, Erica E. Boiman, and Frederick K. Goodwin, “Diagnosing Bipolar Disorder and the Effect of Antidepressants: A Naturalistic Study,”
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
61 (2000): 804–808.

44
as documented in Jane Fonda's memoir:
Jane Fonda,
My Life So Far
(New York: Random House, 2005).

44
“lithium is a miracle” . . . :
A 1992
Time
magazine article reported thus: “If Turner can sound lighthearted about his death obsession, it is because he does feel much better about life these days. One of the main reasons is that at the urging of his second wife Janie, who was hoping to save their marriage, he began to see an Atlanta psychiatrist, Dr. Frank Pittman, in 1985. Pittman did two important things for Turner. The first was put him on the drug lithium, which is generally used to treat manic-depression as well as a milder tendency toward mood swings known as a cyclothymic personality. Turner's colleagues and J. J. Ebaugh, the woman for whom he left Janie, suddenly saw an enormous change in his behavior. “Before, it was pretty scary to be around the guy sometimes because you never knew what in the world was going to happen next. If he was about to fly off the handle, you just never knew. That's why the whole world was on pins and needless around him,” says Ebaugh. “But with lithium he became very even tempered. Ted's just one of those miracle cases. I mean, lithium is great stuff, but in Ted's particular case, lithium is a miracle.” Priscilla Painton, “The Taming of Ted Turner,”
Time,
January 6, 1992.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,974622-2,00.html#ixzz1I1LwlHeh
(accessed Apirl 4, 2011).