3. Virginia Woolf had her teeth pulled to ‘treat’ her mental illness
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was an English writer whose non-linear and stream-of-consciousness novels were instrumental in the development of the modern genre. Her work was, in part, a reaction to the constraints of Victorian novels, and included themes that would have been excluded from the male-dominated period. Woolf was a member of the influential Bloomsbury Group of writers and artists, and is also celebrated today as an important figure in the history of feminism. Beyond her fiction, Woolf wrote essays on the topic and gave public lectures to ensure young women were aware of the need for feminism.
Woolf was also suffered from depression. After the death of her mother when Woolf was just thirteen, she suffered severe mood swings and fits of despondency characteristic of bipolar disorder. Unfortunately, efforts to help her were primitive and misogynistic. In 1922, she had several teeth removed to help her ‘madness’, which predictably proved futile. She was also sent for ‘rest cures’ designed to help women with ‘nervous disorders’, treatments in which included force-feeding, the banning of literature, and isolation. The turbulent events of the early twentieth century only increased her sadness, and no useful help was forthcoming for the talented writer.
The failure of prescribed treatment and rest-cures meant that she took her own life in 1941. Her suicide note to her doting husband, Leonard Woolf, is heartbreaking and typical of someone suffering from depression. Woolf, like so many others, believed that her loved ones would be better off without her: ‘I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work… I can’t go on spoiling your life any longer’. A prevailing myth about suicide is that it is a selfish act, but Woolf truly thought that she was doing the kindest thing for everyone.