I wrote a term paper about Emily Dickinson when I was majoring in English lit in college. It was obvious to me that Emily felt emotions a whole lot more strongly than other people, and isolated herself to avoid the unbearable intensity of life.
That is one interpretation, but there are others and I think it is important in academic work to consider other possibilities even if you don't necessarily agree with the. There is nothing obvious about Emily.
The name for feeling emotions more intensely is mast cell activation syndrome. Emotions are inflammatory responses. neurodivergent people have stronger inflammatory responses so exposure to the world is very draining because they're essentially mildly allergic to everything
I remember coming across a comment about her written by a Male acquaintance of the family , something along the lines of her being so intense that she was kind of exhausting.
Her reclusive life, I believe, was chosen. It's emotionally exhausting to be sensitive and compassionate. I don't believe she was mentally ill. She simply wanted and needed peace in her life.
I do not think Emily Dickinson had a reclusive life. Sounds like every modern woman in 2023 with personal choices. She did everything. Wrote, worked remotely (she published and ran a household), cared for her ailing mother, had intense friendship with her neighbor friend, "personal" friendships with men. Her sexuality seems healthy, appropriate, and intact. Had a very bad father with...well. Everybody knows that man. That's not her. That's him and we all believe it, don't we? Emily had her hobbies, loved spending time with children, decided marriage and kids wasn't in her cards. Being a woman has always been a psychiatric problem when a woman decides her own fate, no matter the date you are born. Emily Dickinson was one of the first modern women. She was spiritually sound, had questions like we all do. Her health? Sounds normal (or above) considering the epidemics in Emily Dickinson's lifespan. Setting up "rules" with outsiders like doctors sounds like a strategy to stay independent and in control of finances, right? Sounds clever to me. And obviously, at the end we all die from something. Emily did too. The diagnosis is... Emily Dickinson was one of the greatest writers of all time. That's it. 😊 Emily said she was a rebel. She was.
All I'm reading is speculation, opinion, and rumors. Not one reference to a primary source, or even an attempt at a citation beyond one's "feelings" and beliefs about a person 100+ years removed.
I totally agree with you, she was really bright and especially given the time when women were not accepted to be anything but wives and bearers of children. I do think she suffered from some anxiety which would be understandable as she did not fit in with regular society, she was born too early. She would have thrived in 2023.
As someone on the autism spectrum, with ADHD and a chronic illness, I can relate to Emily's desire to recluse and hyperfocus on writing. If I had servants and others to keep house and buy food it would be very tempting. I love that she is still an enigma.
Homospains our species is awful. Relate to being a person . Most people even now are outpriced from living especially in America. Slavery still going on and especially then females were seen as property, objects by law not people. Sexism paid a huge role in her not seeing any point in leaving her safe haven. Much like Jane Austen to also grief. Grief hits very hard. Sexism played a huge factor. Our society also loves gaslighting others even now terrorism is the adopted marketplace. Been a prison hostage camp for a very long time. Remains that.
@@ZestyAqua True. And this is still going on in America in 2023. We just gaslight everything, and everyone gaslights each other. Humans must stop breeding. We're a very selfish, self-serving creature that destroys everything we touch. And what we've done to the poor animals is truly demonic.
Im on the spectrum yet, articulate, enjoy time with people (when i choose), able to focus on things that immensely interest me, get very excited and animated when i experience wonderous adventures. I am considered high functioning, high iq, non aspergers. My family, friends and colleagues consider me to be quite humorous and friendly. I do prefer animals to humans.
@TomokoAbe_ I agree, and I hate to sound cynical , but being "on the spectrum" is definitely the flavour of the month amongst psychologists and psychiatrists atm, irrespective of whether the diagnoses are legitimate and correct. They may well be correct, but we should never forget how many people were falsely diagnosed with having "repressed memories" in the 1990s or with Multiple Personality Disorder aka Dissociative Identity disorder.
I envy her. She had the luxury of living her life as it suited her, and did just that. I kinda hate the modern need to explain everything by mental illness. She didn't cut off anyone's ear.
That swipe at Vincent Van Gogh was horribly ignorant and cruel. It shows incredible insensitivity to the artistic temperament. Go paint, or write, a masterwork, and then run your mouth. Only then will you know what it takes to channel deep-seated emotions into art.
Read Darkly Dickinson by B.D. Watson. You will get every answer you ever had about Emily Dickinson based on over 15 years of intense research. It is very sad, but most people who have read it said it was worth the read.
@@BeverlyWatson-t6othere is no way however much research anyone does to get clear verified truths about the life of someone that lived so long ago. You can't fact check anything with the person concerned or their friends & family, can't make your own direct impressions and have to largely rely on other people's biased opinions and prejudices about the person
@@BeverlyWatson-t6othanks I will read it. I once bought a book of her poems while giving Stephen King the gospel of Jesus Christ when he was signing his book Needful Things at The Book Marc in downtown Bangor Maine.
I had a mother just like Emily's. I have nearly every symptom of Emily's. I was diagnosed at age 35 with a mental disorder. I had a rough childhood and an abusive marriage. Now I am 70 years old and I've been alone for 32 years. Progressively I have almost gone into total seclusion. Like Emily I am overly sensitive and an artist. The longer I stay to myself the happier I am and feel very secure. People say not to isolate but in my case it is my medicine. Thank you for this wonderful video!
You, Bombay Cat, are my spirit animal! I enjoy my solitude and I am very creative. My origins are very similar to yours and I have been divorced for 22 years. Thank you for your post! 🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽
Being sensitive is enough to make anyone drop out and the older you get the less energy you are able to spare...every person you are around takes energy from you and if you have none to spare because it's never given back you tend to hide from human interaction until the boredom of isolation brings you back out but if something bad happens every time you go out, forget it most will stop going out
I'm astonished that no one has mentioned agoraphobia as a possibility. It also should be noted that there could likely be more than one physical malady playing a role here
@@professorgraemeyorston but it doesn’t need to explain ALL of her behavior. People are complex and several things likely contributed to her behaviors. This also seemed a likely explanation to me, especially in that she not only did not want to leave her house, she also did not want to meet people face to face in her own home.
That's what I thought of first! Or social phobia could be an explanation. But maybe that is mentioned in the video, I have only watched the introduction yet.
I’m on disability for depression and panic disorder and am agoraphobic. I live a lot like Emily but without the literary genius part 😅 thank god for my cats ❤
Or maybe she was just an introvert who liked to be alone? Honestly I never found her actions to be odd, as a fellow introvert I completely understand not wanting to socialize and just immerse yourself in nature.
I live in Amherst, MA, just a couple of miles from Emily’s home. We have the best collection of her belongings in our library. I just ❤Emily and her writing.
@@professorgraemeyorston You had better believe it. There are usually tours going on at the home, which is its most important historical landmark. Our main library houses the largest Emily Dickinson information in the USA, and boasts its greatest collection of items from the homestead. Anything I can do for you? Get you brochures, info ?
I take issue that depression is rejected so soundly because of a few examples such as she likes nature and children etc. There are more than one type of depression. I have suffered from depression for 30 years and tend to isolate, yet I have things I do enjoy like nature, pets and children. Anxiety often accompanies depression and it sounds like Emily experienced both. People can have what is called dysthymia which is less severe than a major depression but is more chronic and lasts many years and even a lifetime. Depression can also have physical symptoms as well. It sounds like she likely had several things going on, both physical and mental.
I didn’t say it explains all her behavior- in fact I specifically said ‘she likely had several things going on, both physical and mental.’ People with depression also often have multiple issues which can be mental and physical in nature.
I haven't finished the video... but if that is ever concluded... I won't finish. Nearly everyone that has ever been a victim that doesn't go on to victimize or become sociopathic, are WITHOUT A DOUBT severely depressed with a love and fondness for nature, animals, and children. They are seen as SAFE. It is always rare for a woman to go through life without being victimized. Not to mention, she thought she was going to die at 18-20. Losing a lot of family to a disease and then getting that disease is FREAKING TERRIFYING!!! As a woman, from Massachusetts, who almost died in her 20s from a disease that has taken 5 of my family members, and is now somewhat a recluse in her 30s... perhaps listen to my perspective! 😄 I legit just made my own Botany Journal today. Ms. Dickenson was GOING THROUGH some stuff! Trust me. She just wanted to be left alone with her comforts! 😄😄
I'm an "isolater" who also fixates on writing (and cats). The only time you'll see me outside is when I have to go for groceries. I prefer chatting with people I know through emails, which I fondly call digital letters. It seems weird from the outside, but living this way is what makes me feel safe and cozy.
She was an artist, independent. SHE DIDNT WANT A HUSBAND. That's all folks. And thank God she stuck to it and her parents let her be in her beautiful attic, otherwise she'd be too busy a slave in the kitchen and we'd never have her poetry today-which is awesome!
Read Darkly Dickinson by B.D. Watson. You will get every answer you ever had about Emily Dickinson based on over 15 years of intense research. It is very sad, but most people who have read it said it was worth the read.
Your negative points struck me as very cogent, and I liked the open conclusion, acknowledging her elusiveness. I like to think of her as just being a highly eccentric individual who preferred to go her own way, and live in her own world and her own company; she didn't cut herself off completely, and could interact in a thoroughly sensible manner with other people, if indirectly for the most part. It seems inappropriate to me to try to explain her behaviour in terms of any simple pathology.
I love this rush to describe “loners” as being somehow, “psychologically damaged “….Rubbish. I’ve known lots of true loners (mainly writers, truth be told) who spend months at a time without seeing a single face (hermits run in my family)…..I’ve often felt that they “had the Secret,” and were some of the most contented people I know….
@@professorgraemeyorston recluse & eccentric, introvert/agoraphobe etc are fairly unkind & modern interpretations. Why pathologize genius? She was probably far too intelligent to suffer “polite society” at the time.
The day I heard that the famous poet, Emily Dickinson, became a recluse and spent her days writing…I sobbed tears of relief. I thought “omg, finally, someone like me!” I can’t help but see her behavior paralleling my own. I am highly sensitive to disorder and chaos. It is hard to go out in public for all the sensory overload I experience from the hot summer heat while I drive, the congested roads, the lights, signs and hoards of people at stores. Over the years I have developed a mysterious anxiety and paranoia of driving the interstate even. I have borderline personality disorder but I’ve always known myself to be a highly sensitive person. My early life and environment cause me to be empathetic to people and surroundings to protect myself and it has only increased with time. The world just doesn’t seem to be pleasant for a soul like me so I keep to myself mostly and soak up the peace, quiet and solitude all I can. It keeps me balanced mentally, emotionally and spiritually. My home is my world. It provides all I need and allows me to create an atmosphere suited just for my needs. It’s a place of beauty, harmony and creativity. Why would I leave it for the world? 😅 And yes, I catch a lot of criticism and flack for how I choose to live. I question everything and I think for myself above all else. I like who I’m discovering and I hope to find others like me online.❤
A very interesting video! I believe that her sister Lavinia said it best when she said that Emily “needed time to think,” and that is why she became reclusive.
taken as a series of emotional reactions to the thought of interacting with others, rather than some condition, makes sense to me. i am mostly a recluse also. i always come up with a reason not to get involved and yes... throw out my thoughts into a poem. i am hard on myself for not getting involved but do nothing about it.
Possibly she was highly sensitive and incredibly gifted at writing and that ill health made her feel vulnerable thus seeking peace in her room to focus completely on her work. Certainly made me think a great deal about her. I watched the movie 'A Quiet Passion' which was extremely good.
I'll have to check that out! She was a Sagittarius which if you know anything about astrology would make her bold statements about not conforming to church spot on. Sagittarius' are known for their bold statements. However, I think she was highly sensitive too and that came out through her poetry which is completely normal. It wasn't like she was using morphine or opium!
I have 3 remarks to her situation: 1) Would it be bothering people that much if she was a male? Because there are examples of scientists/authors who were also almost isolated, but as they were often taken care about by either their wives or other people around, it wasn't considered as an isolation... (But she couldn't be married or even in a relationship, I think it was Virginia Woolf who made some "discoveries" that women with children have very hard times to find calm to create). 2) What would she do, if she was not rich enough to just... exist? How many similarly creative minds esp. of women were lost to everyday burdens that prevented them to write or involve in progress of any kind? 3) Was it possible she had some kind of vitamin and/or mineral deficiency (like D or B12, magnesium, calcium etc.) that were interconnected and then worsen by her not going out? E.g. a tetany can manifest by various neurological issues and breathing difficulties and even seizures, while it's also connected to psychological problems (I know people who had panic attacks and tetanic symptoms and both got better by dealing with the deficiencies).
I think things went horribly wrong when she moved back home and her parents died. To leave her room was a reminder of her parents dying. The house turned into her tomb. I wonder what would have happened if she had delayed going home for a few years and continued to bloom.
Why are they questioning her withdrawal from her social life? She lived in a time when it was expected that a single daughter should look after a bedridden relative. She also wasn't supported financially so she didn't have the extra household help that might have let her escape for a few hours. That would have been depressing, yet she kept up a lively engagement with her neighbour and wrote letters and many poems. She made the best of her situation. With no one else to care for her mother what choice did she have? I admire her greatly.
@@professorgraemeyorston I think you might be overlooking how Emily might feel towards her doctor. Isn't the highest rate of sociopathy in the so-called caring professions? And perhaps like many women, she might have felt the doctor's evaluation would go beyond the clinical. Besides, this is one small town full of gossips!
The most prolific serial killer in the English-speaking world was a doctor, a general practitioner who made house calls. All his patients, including his victims, loved him.
Her poetry stands alone as groundbreaking, without having to know anything about her life. I am so glad it was not destroyed, as she wished it to be. She was obviously functioning, helping to run a household. My bet is that she didn’t want to get married, and had an anxiety disorder also. The family could afford servants, and she could afford to do as she liked.
I visited her home and had the tour. I was struck by the fact that she rarely left home---did she see her home as a haven, a place where she could explore the wider world yet be safe knowing she wouldn't be hurt? Did she suffer losses in relationships that so moved her to become reclusive? Or, was she ill---either psychologically or physically? So many possibilities to try to explain her talent and way with words. Was she on the autism spectrum? Did she see too deeply into the natural world and state of human emotions? No one has any definitive answers, so we can only speculate. But, we can't deny her genius for making poetry, celebrating the insignifcant and ordinary, and elevating the powers of keen observation to some of the most mundane things in life that captured her attention.
I listened to this podcast today and decided to read her poetry for the first time in about 50 years. The first one I came upon was Wild Nights, written in 1861 at a time when her seclusion was setting in. What I see here is great yearning and hopelessness, the futile winds, no compass or chart. Very moving and sad. Wild nights - Wild nights! Were I with thee Wild nights should be Our luxury! Futile - the winds - To a Heart in port - Done with the Compass - Done with the Chart! Rowing in Eden - Ah - the Sea! Might I but moor - tonight - In thee!
@@professorgraemeyorston why did you give her a mid-Atlantic wannabe Katherine Hepburn accent? It sounds very unnatural. I'm from Amherst. Even in the 19th century, we didn't sound like that.
@@professorgraemeyorston srsly, I'll record something for you for free if you wanna redo it---it's been nagging at the back of my mind all day! I can send you some samples if you're interested
Creativity rides the tides of love and there is much love and much to love in Emily Dickinson's self-expression. Nothing was "wrong" with her. She was a unique individual who lived a unique life.
I can really feel for Emily Dickinson. When I was in my twenties I locked myself in an apartment for 5 years. Finally I was able to go out but not completely. I still battle with agoraphobia and it's taken so much from me. If you're living with this condition, don't accept it and NEVER give up. Never say that you suffer from this condition instead say that you battle with this condition. You will lose battles but you will win battles too and ultimately you and I will win this war.
Thanks so much for allowing Emily Dickinson to be enigmatic and keep it to herself, even in her death. As herd animals, we respond, or react to the world we are born into. Making the recognition of others the measure of success or worth is understandably thin. Being conventionally orderly is hardly a crime against humanity, even if we may surrender to it out of fear of not being visible. We are born into the reclusion of our essential person, so retreating there as a refuge from bores, over-achievers and extroverts., i.e, staying indoors, can be what it is even without being as flagrant as Emily was not even trying. She is visible as she thought it best to be, in the living trail of her poems left like bread-crumbs in the forest.
We may have been separated at birth. Your writing is excellent, also. I love the way you used "reclusion." I understand why you did, and it enabled you to make that sentence remarkably precise. ( Me, I think I'd have picked "seclusion," but I don't quarrel with your choice. )
Thanks Bob, I'm not sure I debated much with Self about the choice of "reclusion," but I appreciate your comment. Perhaps we should consider this: reclusion is something Emily did to herself, whereas seclusion suggests something imposed. ED was a strong willed person, judging from everything we can see, so I will still think reclusion. Do you find satisfaction in how she appears to speak to an alter-ego of some sort, and not the reader. We, as readers, have to choose to show up. I'm a Wallace Stevens fan for the same reason. ED is a USAmerican Original.
That was absolutely fascinating, Graeme! She had a lot of grief and heartache in her life. Perhaps she withdrew because she wanted to write in same way Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville West had and didn’t want to be distracted by trivial social matters? There are several strands of other background issues such as her mother’s coldness but none of it seems to be enough to account for her withdrawal from life. I liked your open ending.
Thank you, I'm sure that was part of it but if she wanted to dedicate her life to writing why was she so reluctant to publish - was it her father's prohibition?
@@professorgraemeyorston As mentioned in the video, Emily stated herself that she’d rather be naked in public than share her poems with the world. I can possibly relate, as an amateur writer who pours her guts into what she writes, in that it is so painfully personal and private and the thought of my writing - and I - being judged is abhorrent. ☺️ Perhaps she needed a proper mentor/encouragement in the absence of self confidence.
@@ahill4642 good point. It sounds like she mainly was writing for herself. Some people don’t feel the need to have an audience, some are actually put off by the idea. From her quote you referred to, it sounds like that was the case.
This is fascinating. I relate so much to her. Between having bad parents, chronic illness, being sensitive and creative, living in a small overly religious and fake town. I left my home town several times and for reasons beyond my control had to move back. I dont isolate when I'm not home. I do when I am because my mother sabatages any relationship that she can't control. My doctors say I'm depressed, but i don't subscribe to that diagnosis. I am quite content reading or working on my art alone. It's much better than dealing with small town rumor and drama. I have friends outside this small town that i have met on my travels and we have remained friends for years. Social media makes it easier to keep in touch with them. And they are always just out of reach for my mother to sabatage.
@@professorgraemeyorston I wonder if it would have helped her mentally. I know they say prolonged use of social media has its own mental health risks, but to someone who has friends elsewhere, its extremely helpful. Double edged sword I guess
@@professorgraemeyorston she would have hated it, trust me There are a lot of bullying trolls out there, but they shrink back into the woodwork when you challenge them with the objective truth. Emily would have to have a flip phone......
@@catherinehazur7336 sure. If you use it wisely tho, you can easily block trolls. And don't take what they say seriously. If you do you'll be in trouble. It's not personal. Most of the time they don't even know you. So why would you take what they say as gospel?
@@tiffanym1108 why do you assume that I take what they say as Gospel? I was putting myself in E.D.'s shoes Being a sensitive soul, she probably might not like to dive deep into the darkness that social media can be. But then she might. She lived her life during a different era.....she was an enigma
Can relate to choosing to be alone, liking my own company, while open to the right people showing up as they do. Key is having a great sense of humor, laughing at everything, especially myself. My Mom was Jana Vee Norcross from Odessa, West Texas, making us related to Emily. Her sister had the family tree done in the 1960s. Im a novelist as of 72 years old, the Grandma Moses of Literature, writing adventure stories, a trilogy of novels, flash fiction for young adults.
Always a sad figure to me but perhaps she lived the way she preferred. A quiet genius we're lucky to know if it wasn't for her sister publishing Emilie's work.
@@professorgraemeyorston As an introvert myself, I cherish and enjoy every moment I have of solitude. The lockdowns certainly taught me that I am miserable when compelled to socialise. I noticed the extroverts in my life struggle though, much the same as I struggle when I'm with others. Introverts are a minority but a sizeable one, extroverts certainly assume we must be sad or depressed because that's what depression looks like to them.
She was a genius, & her poetry was her life. Without disregarding other life factors, I just think it was a personal choice-much like nuns chose God, prayer & meditation-she chose mostly life alone with her thoughts, & writing some of the most unique poetry ever written.
I have been suffering with very similar symptoms as Emily my whole adult life and for the past year i have been getting panoc attacks on an increasing scale. I understand how a fear of collapsing in public and an even bigger fear of not being able to teust your own body may cause you to not go out. However i haven't been diagnosed with something either ! Im currently on antidepressants which help a little but i still get panic atracks just not as much as i did. I like people and seeing friends but honestly i mostly feel exhausted after interactions
As an artist and writer I’ve often envied her lifestyle and her courage to choose it. For an introvert it takes so much energy to socialize. If she had a mental illness, I don’t think she would have been so productive.
I worked in the home next door on Triangle Street, shared property line. the woman I worked for was a huge fan and I think it's why she bought the house. this woman, Lynn Margulis, was an impressive person in her own right so if she had praise for her, I wanted to learn more. Amherst is a special town still; you can easily recognize it even in the old photos. we have town gossip/rumors about Emily that float around but...most of us locals hardly hit the h in Amherst, tho. more like it's nearly silent. thanks for the perspective
I would venture to say it was mostly her artistic nature! This New England professional artist/illustrator/painter and American composer, an introvert and HSP i.e. highly sensitive person, can relate to a degree though I do get out and about! But, even the late great American painter Georgia O'Keeffe said "Be of the world, but not in it"! People need to understand that many artists need solitude in order to create! My youngest daughter, a published author of short stories graduated from UMass Amherst and while she was there we visited Emily Dickinsons's home! We saw where she isolated herself and wrote and also were able to walk through her gardens. The home was restored and bright and airy. What was really weird was her brother Austin's Italianate home down the path through some woods. The house was dark, dreary and dusty and not one thing was changed since the mid 1800s. It was eerie to say the least and seemed like the people who lived there, just got up and left things the way they were. The upstairs nursery had blocks and toys on the floor and there was a very old Steinway grand piano in the living room that hadn't been played in over 100 years...spooky! Most likely, haunted with the spirits of the past! In the end, it was probably a combination of things mentioned here! A very complex personality indeed. May she rest in peace~💜💜
I can totally relate to her. Perhaps she just didn't feel safe, appreciated, or understood. People can be judgemental, snipey, or gossips. Her life was lived through her inner world, not the external. Being from Massachusetts (the witch burning state) and having been raised by a puritanical family, it's easy for me to see how she could have gone agoraphobic. Your comfort zone shifts and the world for an HSP/Empath feels overwhelming.
Coming in here as the lightweight, I just want to recommend the Apple series “Dickinson”. As much as I always loved her poems, watching this series is such a beautiful escape. Of course she’s more beautiful in this than in reality, thank you Hollywood, but it’s still such a gorgeous way to feast upon her lyrical writings and the events in her life that may have formed her artistic genius. She is … and will always be my favorite poet of all time ~
So, why is Emily's choice to remain home (as elder daughters were often expected to do) considered odd? Talking from behind doors is odd. Being a "home girl" is not. Being able to choose a lifestyle that preserved her independence and enjoyment of nature and "ordinary" work is also a factor -- her father could afford to support her and this allowed her to make this choice. Interesting that amid all these theories of mental disorders tick fever or Epstein Barr or other debilitating virus (not yet identified but surely around and effecting people during her time) is not floated as a theory. Not a doc, but I'd say anxiety that grew as the grieving process failed to come to the stage of acceptance. Be interesting to know what took place while she was at her aunt's house after the first terrible grief. Apparently whatever was said or done there helped. However, trauma and grief continued w/o a useful philosophy to mitigate the shock, fear and pain. By all accounts, many, many women "went crazy" after too much death (particularly the death of their children) in those earlier centuries.
Read Darkly Dickinson by B.D. Watson. You will get every answer you ever had about Emily Dickinson based on over 15 years of intense research. It is very sad, but most people who have read it said it was worth the read.
Please professor read my book Darkly Dickinson by B.D. Watson. I did so much research. I would have loved to have contributed to your youtube video. I studied her for over 15 years nonstop. @@professorgraemeyorston
Yes, I agree with the previous comment by Sandy Brown. Why do we think that choosing to be a recluse means someone is mentally ill. Not everyone wants to be with others. I need lots of alone time to be able to hear my own thoughts. It's a beautiful thing. We should encourage it. Often, I can't stand other people. That doesn't make me ill. It makes me an individual with my own set of needs.
Emily Dickinson's poetry is incredibly rich, subtle, dense, and insightful. She was brilliant and revolutionary. By the way, locals do not pronounce the "h" in "Amherst." It's pronounced as if it were written "Amerst."
I am watching this because i see similarities between Emily and myself, i found it interesting what you had to say. I doubt we will ever know the real reason she was reclusive, i started to become reclusive in my 30's and i am now 48 and haven't left the house for 3 years. There is nothing wrong with me, i don't care much for the outside world and this is how i feel content to live, perhaps Emily had similar reasons, or her own reasons and maybe it wasn't because there was something wrong with her.
Sadness and metaphysical beauty flowing from her pen. Let her words speak to your soul. Watch more than one video about her life. I'm going to look for articles and a full biography or two..
I just wanted to say: I really like this video. I have been writing a paper for the past couple of months on the link between mental illness and creativity, and one of the subjects I am examining is Emily Dickinson. This documentary is one of the sources I have been heavily using in discussing her seclusion due to the fact that you very clearly talk about just about every possible theory, and most of my other sources have not been so generous. I won't claim I agree with everything you say, but certainly propose some very interesting questions and arguements
There was a questioning of her sexuality. She may have been a bisexual and she didn't conform to the mainstream religious belief that would explain a lot. It's normal that she didn't feel like she would fit in in the society. She probably had CPTSD because it feels like she wasn't loved by her caregivers and she couldn't find meaning, and everyone she cared about kept dying while she survived. Not having CPTSD wouldn't be normal. Either having a personality disorder or CPTSD would have been normal for her case. She may have had social anxiety which is something that gives you a panic attack even when you are alone in a public place, just in case you encounter someone and you wouldn't know how to react. She probably had a low key depression all her life. Something like dysthymia which doesn't easily go away and lasts for years. Physical illness feeds it too, you feel fatigued, confused and you can't trust your energy level and wellbeing and you feel like you are destined to feel this way. You can have a major depressive episode upon that so it's double depression. I'm not sure whether she had those. She probably did. It may just look like physical illness sometimes because not everyone goes to bed and cries and cries. Some people just shut down or sometimes you just shut down. I speak from experience.
@Fill Your Cup I agree with all that you said. Very well put. You describe dysthymia quite well and it has (or can have) differing symptoms and also physical ailments associated as well as anxiety in one form or another and can last decades. It also sounds like she did not have a strong support system. Her poetry was likely her main antidote or means to deal with her condition. When I can muster up the energy, my creative outlets are one of the few things that lift my spirits and give me enjoyment and make me feel better.
As a writer who has similar traits to Emily … I conclude that there was nothing wrong with her. Different ages influence different behavior. I believe she was very much talented and true to her art.
Read Darkly Dickinson by B.D. Watson. You will get every answer you ever had about Emily Dickinson based on over 15 years of intense research. It is very sad, but most people who have read it said it was worth the read.
This was the best treatment ive seen of this topic. Her blackouts late in life made me think of hypo glycemia although eschemia is another possibility. All in all she seems to have been the victim of bad luck, poor health, restricted social circumstances and an unusually sensitive nature - all combining to create an extreme case of reclusiveness. And reclusion fostered her poetic muse as well, which may have contributed to her choices.
I became to emotional at church once and had an emotional induced seizure… it was horrible, I only leave home (my nest) when I have to! The more I hear about her, the more alike we are and for some reason it makes me feel like less of a freak!
There is an endless variety of people in the world - never feel a freak - just because you might do things differently to other people doesn't mean that what you're doing is wrong.
Her dog, Carlo, died when she was 36. The dog was her constant companion. She ventured out daily with Carlo and even attended a party a friend had at her home; she also went on a trip to Washington, D.C with her sister. It wasn't until after Carlo's death that she became increasingly private. She also had a debilitating disease which made going out in public difficult. Read the book, "Shaggy Muses," by Maureen Adams, pages 99-137 for a true description and account of what Emily Dickinson was really like. "My Wars are Laid Away in Books" by Alfred Habegger is perhaps the best biography about Emily Dickinson's life and what really happened during her life with regard about her later reclusive nature.
She was a type 4 in the enneagram. Deep sea divers of the phyc. I am a four also. Solitude is necessary to rewind. The Matrix is exhausting. Depression often meets us but we emerge wiser each time.
I live in the same area that Emily did. I have felt her influence and presence all around this valley. She was not strange or an oddball. She simply preferred a quiet life.
24:53 This. As soon as you mentioned the lack of nurturing and attachment early on in the video, I KNEW that this was the cause of ALL that followed. 100% If your earliest caregiver cannot connect with anyone and never forges a connection with you, to demonstrate to you how it works, how it *feels*... doesn't demonstrate and model the maternal role, how can that isolated child ever connect with anyone? They can't. It's an early lack of attachment and nurturing safety, protection and care. No doubt in my mind. What she experienced and how she responded was a completely natural and predictable reaction to a "caregiver" who didnt provide the care an infant needs. There is an important, vital, developmental window in which the building blocks of forming relationships were not laid. It leads to a lonely and isolated life. An outsider looking in to a world that is forever closed to you.
Attachment is important, but there may also have been neurodevelopmental issues, affecting the degree to which she was able to reciprocate emotional bonding.
I see her life as progression along the way of spiritual awakening as typical of most saints and yogis...the need for silence and isolation....not an illness.
Coming from a very neurodiverse family, it sounds very much that she was twice exceptional with autism and/or adhd. A very large percentage of creative geniuses are neurodivergent. Their neurodivergence gives them intellectual and creative super powers. Most people on the autism spectrum have anxiety because the world is sensory overload, and emotions are more intense than for neurotypical people. It seems like a pretty likely possibility for Emily...also considering that her parents seemed to have some autistic traits in her descriptions of them too...and it is highly genetic. Also, a disproportionate number of neurodivergent people are gay or bisexual or sexually nonconforming. Autistic people are often nonconforming in general, and don't follow trends just because they are trendy. They make thoughtful, calucated, rational decisions...much like she did with her views on religion.
After five videos in a row, I'm one of your many fans, Dr. Yorston. I really love your approach to mental health amongst the deservedly famous; you combine deep professional intelligence with humanity and verve (some of the actor voiceovers are maybe a bit peri-caricaturist?!) I wonder if you're interested in presenting the intriguing life of Alexander Borodin? Not exactly a paradigm of mental pathology, he was quite the opposite--countenancing two very successful careers in music and chemistry, while supporting friends financially and advancing women's rights to education. And all that as the "quiet" but beloved son of a relationship outside marriage, in a very tendentious era of European and Russian cultural history. He's one of my personal, political and artistic heroes, and a prime example of overachievement in an eminently healthy "Renaissance" individual.
I too can sympathise with Emily as I have written maybe 100 decent poems myself that cover many aspects of life and prefer my own company. I believe she was acutely sensitive due to her own inert passions and that made mingling with ordinary "boring and opinionated" people difficult.
In my university prep English literature course we spent much focus on Emily Dickinson. It was a consensus within the class, as mostly young women in rural Canada, that Dickinson retreated from society as she was a woman of genius living in the mid 19th century. If she had involved herself in society she would have been expected to be married, raise children, submit herself to her husband and give up her art and freedoms. As young rural women this made a good deal of sense to us at the time.
@@professorgraemeyorston I get that but honestly as an introvert and a person uninterested in raising children or taking care of a husband I might have hidden myself away on my family's estate (if my family had an estate and I got along with them) if I were highly creative and talented and didn't need to work outside my home to support myself. There is nothing particularly physically or psychologically unwell about me. I have certainly never been diagnosed with anything. I do agree that it would seem she did indeed pass away due to some physical ailment versus mental anguish or illness.
I think there's a simple explanation for Emily Dickinson's reclusive lifestyle. I relate to it myself. 3:33 Apparently she was what's defined nowadays as "emotionally neglected." Besides this, it comes down to temperament or personality, that is, being introverted by nature.
I’m starting to binge on ur content Professor YORSTON. I just subbed to u yesterday 4/21/24x. Love that u are a forensic psychiatrist. I was a psychology major in college but do to circumstances I dropped out. Love ur analyses of ur subjects here. Anyway I’m trying to catch up on your vids bc I’m so new here. Ty so much for ur uploading of brilliant content.
It is so fascinating that we feel compelled to explain creative genius through a disease or a malady. Dickinson was, quite simply, uber creative. Only now are we beginning to understand such personalities. She viewed and examined the world through eyes "normies" do not possess. As such, she shunned worlds that could harm her. It was self preservation. Her "passing out" or "fainting" is interesting. A few years ago I went through the same thing ... I had low blood pressure. Simple as that. A sedentary, non-physical life and routine would certainly explain. What people miss is that she was fortunate to have a "name" a "home" and "income." Without those, she would have been homeless and anonymous. Unknown to any of us. Family is important ... an aspect no one seems to want to admit -- in an increasing age of "wokeism." For those who live/lived in small towns, "Emily" is quite normal. Why do want to define her as abnormal when her poems, more than anything, describe an incredible being with incredible gifts of analysis of the human condition--which is what ART is all about.
The passing outs can, as I understand it, also be caused by dangerously high blood pressure. I had probably a dozen episodes of it in the 2009 - 2012 period. I'm also a neurological patient, but one day in 2012, my neurologist said, "Well, today's appointment has been converted to a blood pressure appointment." It took several years to find a med I could tolerate ( Diovan nearly killed me by causing hyponatremia ) which worked, but eventually, I did. It's extremely depressing to wake up at 2:30 in the morning, with the sandwich you had been eating at about 9:00 the previous evening scattered on your lap. Once when this happened, I realized I had a big chunk of the sandwich in the corner of my mouth. God must have kept me from choking. I think your comment is superb. You're right, "emilys" seem to be a phenomenon of smaller town American life.
She could indeed simply have been a creative genius - but perhaps just as it is wrong to over-pathologise, it is not right to dismiss the role of illness and neurodivergence in shaping behaviour. In Emily's case we just don't know.
@@13soap13 amlodipine. 5mgs is the usual dose, but I need 10. My BP last time was something like 124/72 ( That's not exactly it, I don't remember the precise reading, but it was in that area. )
I'm confused why you'd bring up "woke-ism" when it's the "woke" people you talk about who do discuss how much family and wealth shape your lifestyle and how you are perceived. Kinda seems like you shoehorned it into the conversation.
Thank you for your independent presentation and care. I appreciate this more level, objective assessment and reticence to jump to pathologizing what is not readily understood or known. The wild speculations seem to grow more abundant with time and trend. Emily has been a first love since I was introduced in high school. She is the same and always. Her words have brought me much comfort and solace, when nothing and no one else could.
Dear Professor, I quite enjoyed your exploration of into the enigma of Emily Dickinson. Your exclusion of mental maladies I definitely concur. Emily was an highly empathetic being which perhaps forced her to the road less traveled. Her constant creative drive, her obviously high intellect and curiosity about many things most certainly can result in episodes of exhausting over stimulation. Some people are in the world but not of the world. Emily’s attempts to find her place must have frustrated and brought with it a miasma that unsettled her. I don’t find it in the least bit strange that she chose a rather cloistered life. I chose to live that way myself when I got older. The heart and the mind simply exhaust themselves with deep contemplative thought. I also greed that she probably did not have epilepsy but her spells were ischemic episodes in her brain. I’ve had 2 and her response coming out of them mirror my own experience. Emily was Emily. Her personality may have been odd to others…..but deep down I believed she knew she was choosing her actions and the path those actions freely directed her . Thank you for an evening of a little sherry and a good insightful study of Emily Dickinson.
The archetype of the agonizingly sensitive, emotionally mangled and physically weak creative genius seems to be a myth. Most creative geniuses have proven to be rather robust people. Bach must have had some natural upper in his system to have enabled him to sire all those children. ( Double entendre free for your enjoyment. )
1) It was possible to survive tuberculosis/consumption back then, although not many did survive. She may have feared that she could still transmit it (if she had it). She also may have feared being exposed to germs from others, and that could explain her avoidance behavior. 2) As someone else stated, she may have developed agoraphobia. The description of being in church sounds very similar to agoraphobia. That's something that usually develops gradually, although it can come on suddenly for some people. 3) OCD she could have had OCD, and avoiding germs or unfamiliar people could have been a manifestation of it. 4) PTSD. Could she have been raped or molested at school? Was she impregnated, whether through a consentual or forceful situation? Being sent to live with a distant relative was often used as a means to have a child in secret. If that was the case, she would have been required to not be seen by anyone and stay hidden. That could have resulted in a continuing desire to remain hidden or a fear of being seen. 4) Depression is likely, but I don't think she was bipolar. In a manic state she might have done something impulsive, such as self-publishing her poems, or some other action that would have been frowned upon during that time period. 6) disfigurement? Perhaps she had some kind of visible flaw, even as simple as acne, that she wanted to conceal? Or, alternatively, there is a disorder where someone believes they are disfigured or unsightly even though there are no visible indications of it.
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I wrote a term paper about Emily Dickinson when I was majoring in English lit in college. It was obvious to me that Emily felt emotions a whole lot more strongly than other people, and isolated herself to avoid the unbearable intensity of life.
That is one interpretation, but there are others and I think it is important in academic work to consider other possibilities even if you don't necessarily agree with the. There is nothing obvious about Emily.
I am with her. I find the world to stimulating. Staying at home in my garden is so wonderful.
The name for feeling emotions more intensely is mast cell activation syndrome. Emotions are inflammatory responses. neurodivergent people have stronger inflammatory responses so exposure to the world is very draining because they're essentially mildly allergic to everything
I remember coming across a comment about her written by a
Male acquaintance of the family , something along the lines of her being so intense that she was kind of exhausting.
@@hawthorne1504 Someone once accused me of that, when I was 18.
She was a highly sensitive artist who saw the world as it is, cruel, unforgiving and insane. She was sane, the world is not!
The world is what it is and we have to find a way to negotiate it with all its flaws....or hide away.
yep and take nice breaks in between.@@professorgraemeyorston
The world is beautiful too. Birth, spring flowers, rainbows, marriage, and grandmas feeling the joy of having grandchildren. Eye of the beholder.
Mary I agree with you 100%. The vast majority of humans are callous, coldhearted, indifferent and uncaring.
@@professorgraemeyorston Hiding away-if one feels one can, & are able-is one of those choices, yes. Respectfully.
Her reclusive life, I believe, was chosen. It's emotionally exhausting to be sensitive and compassionate. I don't believe she was mentally ill. She simply wanted and needed peace in her life.
Yes, it could be as simple as that.
I do not think Emily Dickinson had a reclusive life. Sounds like every modern woman in 2023 with personal choices. She did everything. Wrote, worked remotely (she published and ran a household), cared for her ailing mother, had intense friendship with her neighbor friend, "personal" friendships with men. Her sexuality seems healthy, appropriate, and intact. Had a very bad father with...well. Everybody knows that man. That's not her. That's him and we all believe it, don't we? Emily had her hobbies, loved spending time with children, decided marriage and kids wasn't in her cards. Being a woman has always been a psychiatric problem when a woman decides her own fate, no matter the date you are born. Emily Dickinson was one of the first modern women. She was spiritually sound, had questions like we all do. Her health? Sounds normal (or above) considering the epidemics in Emily Dickinson's lifespan. Setting up "rules" with outsiders like doctors sounds like a strategy to stay independent and in control of finances, right? Sounds clever to me. And obviously, at the end we all die from something. Emily did too. The diagnosis is... Emily Dickinson was one of the greatest writers of all time. That's it. 😊 Emily said she was a rebel. She was.
@@lisadean6107So well said! ❤
All I'm reading is speculation, opinion, and rumors. Not one reference to a primary source, or even an attempt at a citation beyond one's "feelings" and beliefs about a person 100+ years removed.
I totally agree with you, she was really bright and especially given the time when women were not accepted to be anything but wives and bearers of children. I do think she suffered from some anxiety which would be understandable as she did not fit in with regular society, she was born too early. She would have thrived in 2023.
As someone on the autism spectrum, with ADHD and a chronic illness, I can relate to Emily's desire to recluse and hyperfocus on writing. If I had servants and others to keep house and buy food it would be very tempting. I love that she is still an enigma.
All of those are possibilities for Emily, but as you say she is still an enigma.
Homospains our species is awful. Relate to being a person . Most people even now are outpriced from living especially in America. Slavery still going on and especially then females were seen as property, objects by law not people. Sexism paid a huge role in her not seeing any point in leaving her safe haven. Much like Jane Austen to also grief. Grief hits very hard.
Sexism played a huge factor. Our society also loves gaslighting others even now terrorism is the adopted marketplace. Been a prison hostage camp for a very long time. Remains that.
@@ZestyAqua True. And this is still going on in America in 2023. We just gaslight everything, and everyone gaslights each other. Humans must stop breeding. We're a very selfish, self-serving creature that destroys everything we touch. And what we've done to the poor animals is truly demonic.
Im on the spectrum yet, articulate, enjoy time with people (when i choose), able to focus on things that immensely interest me, get very excited and animated when i experience wonderous adventures. I am considered high functioning, high iq, non aspergers. My family, friends and colleagues consider me to be quite humorous and friendly. I do prefer animals to humans.
@TomokoAbe_ I agree, and I hate to sound cynical , but being "on the spectrum" is definitely the flavour of the month amongst psychologists and psychiatrists atm, irrespective of whether the diagnoses are legitimate and correct. They may well be correct, but we should never forget how many people were falsely diagnosed with having "repressed memories" in the 1990s or with Multiple Personality Disorder aka Dissociative Identity disorder.
I envy her. She had the luxury of living her life as it suited her, and did just that. I kinda hate the modern need to explain everything by mental illness. She didn't cut off anyone's ear.
Or her own! lol (Vincent Van Gogh) I think that's who you meant, but he cut off his own ear, not anyone else's.
That swipe at Vincent Van Gogh was horribly ignorant and cruel. It shows incredible insensitivity to the artistic temperament. Go paint, or write, a masterwork, and then run your mouth. Only then will you know what it takes to channel deep-seated emotions into art.
@@randilevson9547 and mental agility!
@@randilevson9547 I wonder how the woman to whom he sent the ear felt about his "gift"?
Agree.
Is she crazy for minding her business and writing poetry?
Or were the people who obsessed over her style of living crazy?
Some people simply are happier being alone. They are often regarded as though there is something wrong. We should make space for people like her. ❤
Read Darkly Dickinson by B.D. Watson. You will get every answer you ever had about Emily Dickinson based on over 15 years of intense research. It is very sad, but most people who have read it said it was worth the read.
@@BeverlyWatson-t6o Thank you for the recommendation.
@@BeverlyWatson-t6othere is no way however much research anyone does to get clear verified truths about the life of someone that lived so long ago. You can't fact check anything with the person concerned or their friends & family, can't make your own direct impressions and have to largely rely on other people's biased opinions and prejudices about the person
@@BeverlyWatson-t6othanks
I will read it. I once bought a book of her poems while giving Stephen King the gospel of Jesus Christ when he was signing his book Needful Things at The Book Marc in downtown Bangor Maine.
I’m one of these people, a loner…
I like this one. Thank you. It's not radical for a woman to withdraw from a hostile society. It is peaceful.
The thought of Emily sneaking out by moonlight to view a new church is so endearing.
It is a creative solution!
I thought that was super cute too!
It shows a strange personality?
All short poems could point to ADHD
I had a mother just like Emily's. I have nearly every symptom of Emily's. I was diagnosed at age 35 with a mental disorder. I had a rough childhood and an abusive marriage. Now I am 70 years old and I've been alone for 32 years. Progressively I have almost gone into total seclusion. Like Emily I am overly sensitive and an artist. The longer I stay to myself the happier I am and feel very secure. People say not to isolate but in my case it is my medicine. Thank you for this wonderful video!
Thank you, I'm glad you've found your peace.
There’s only so many times you can be hurt by people and suffer fools.
You, Bombay Cat, are my spirit animal! I enjoy my solitude and I am very creative. My origins are very similar to yours and I have been divorced for 22 years. Thank you for your post! 🙏🏽❤️🙏🏽
@@keddy5627 Hi Keddy, its very comforting to know that we share the same feelings from our pasts. I'm so happy that you wrote me!🌻
I can relate 100%
Being sensitive is enough to make anyone drop out and the older you get the less energy you are able to spare...every person you are around takes energy from you and if you have none to spare because it's never given back you tend to hide from human interaction until the boredom of isolation brings you back out but if something bad happens every time you go out, forget it most will stop going out
😊❤
Are you me? This is me in the tangible written form.
I'm astonished that no one has mentioned agoraphobia as a possibility. It also should be noted that there could likely be more than one physical malady playing a role here
I agree that is part of it, but it still doesn't explain all of her behaviour.
@@professorgraemeyorston but it doesn’t need to explain ALL of her behavior. People are complex and several things likely contributed to her behaviors. This also seemed a likely explanation to me, especially in that she not only did not want to leave her house, she also did not want to meet people face to face in her own home.
That's what I thought of first! Or social phobia could be an explanation. But maybe that is mentioned in the video, I have only watched the introduction yet.
As a person with agoraphobia and social phobia, many of my “quirks” are seen as very odd indeed.
I’m on disability for depression and panic disorder and am agoraphobic. I live a lot like Emily but without the literary genius part 😅 thank god for my cats ❤
Or maybe she was just an introvert who liked to be alone? Honestly I never found her actions to be odd, as a fellow introvert I completely understand not wanting to socialize and just immerse yourself in nature.
Absolutely.
Bingo! I have seen only one other commenter who has this view, which to me makes the most sense.
Nobody knows people....none of you were there
I live in Amherst, MA, just a couple of miles from Emily’s home. We have the best collection of her belongings in our library. I just ❤Emily and her writing.
Fantastic, is the town proud of it's famous daughter?
@@professorgraemeyorston You had better believe it. There are usually tours going on at the home, which is its most important historical landmark. Our main library houses the largest Emily Dickinson information in the USA, and boasts its greatest collection of items from the homestead. Anything I can do for you? Get you brochures, info ?
She is my favorite poet!
@@tonifish3879 Shakespeare is my favourite poet. But…….. I read Emily every day.
@@garymelnyk7910 I was bed fast one year & read all Shakespeare’s works in that time. You have good taste!
I take issue that depression is rejected so soundly because of a few examples such as she likes nature and children etc. There are more than one type of depression. I have suffered from depression for 30 years and tend to isolate, yet I have things I do enjoy like nature, pets and children. Anxiety often accompanies depression and it sounds like Emily experienced both. People can have what is called dysthymia which is less severe than a major depression but is more chronic and lasts many years and even a lifetime. Depression can also have physical symptoms as well. It sounds like she likely had several things going on, both physical and mental.
Yes she may have been dysthymic, and yes dysthymia is associated with somatic symptoms, but I don't think it explains all of her behaviour.
I didn’t say it explains all her behavior- in fact I specifically said ‘she likely had several things going on, both physical and mental.’ People with depression also often have multiple issues which can be mental and physical in nature.
I haven't finished the video... but if that is ever concluded... I won't finish.
Nearly everyone that has ever been a victim that doesn't go on to victimize or become sociopathic, are WITHOUT A DOUBT severely depressed with a love and fondness for nature, animals, and children.
They are seen as SAFE. It is always rare for a woman to go through life without being victimized. Not to mention, she thought she was going to die at 18-20. Losing a lot of family to a disease and then getting that disease is FREAKING TERRIFYING!!!
As a woman, from Massachusetts, who almost died in her 20s from a disease that has taken 5 of my family members, and is now somewhat a recluse in her 30s... perhaps listen to my perspective! 😄
I legit just made my own Botany Journal today. Ms. Dickenson was GOING THROUGH some stuff! Trust me. She just wanted to be left alone with her comforts! 😄😄
Correct (me too).
You guys are making a lot of absolute statements based on anecdotal evidence. Feelings do not equal facts. Sad world.
As an extreme introvert, 20 years of isolation and writing sounds lovely.
But would you expect a doctor to examine you from a different room?
Probably
@@professorgraemeyorstonQueen Victoria had frequent periods of depression, when she would only speak to her senior advisers thru a half closed door.
I'm an "isolater" who also fixates on writing (and cats). The only time you'll see me outside is when I have to go for groceries. I prefer chatting with people I know through emails, which I fondly call digital letters. It seems weird from the outside, but living this way is what makes me feel safe and cozy.
I am much the same as you. 💛
@anonview writing+cats=life🥰
Not weird.
It's fine.
She was an artist, independent. SHE DIDNT WANT A HUSBAND. That's all folks. And thank God she stuck to it and her parents let her be in her beautiful attic, otherwise she'd be too busy a slave in the kitchen and we'd never have her poetry today-which is awesome!
Read Darkly Dickinson by B.D. Watson. You will get every answer you ever had about Emily Dickinson based on over 15 years of intense research. It is very sad, but most people who have read it said it was worth the read.
Actually she did. Read Darkly Dickinson and you will see that she was madly in love but things happened.
Your negative points struck me as very cogent, and I liked the open conclusion, acknowledging her elusiveness. I like to think of her as just being a highly eccentric individual who preferred to go her own way, and live in her own world and her own company; she didn't cut herself off completely, and could interact in a thoroughly sensible manner with other people, if indirectly for the most part. It seems inappropriate to me to try to explain her behaviour in terms of any simple pathology.
Thank you, I wondered if people might find the open conclusion a bit indecisive... but it was the only conclusion I could come to!
I agree with it too. None of the other explanations fit as well.
Well said
I agree with your analysis. 👍🏼
She needed a good lay. Sorry.
I love this rush to describe “loners” as being somehow, “psychologically damaged “….Rubbish. I’ve known lots of true loners (mainly writers, truth be told) who spend months at a time without seeing a single face (hermits run in my family)…..I’ve often felt that they “had the Secret,” and were some of the most contented people I know….
She was a bit more than a loner!
Yup.
@@professorgraemeyorston recluse & eccentric, introvert/agoraphobe etc are fairly unkind & modern interpretations. Why pathologize genius? She was probably far too intelligent to suffer “polite society” at the time.
@professorgraemeyorston are you actually a professor of anything?
Wonder of wonders- blessed are those of us who don’t require face to face interaction with humans to experience contentment, peace and joy!
The day I heard that the famous poet, Emily Dickinson, became a recluse and spent her days writing…I sobbed tears of relief. I thought “omg, finally, someone like me!” I can’t help but see her behavior paralleling my own. I am highly sensitive to disorder and chaos. It is hard to go out in public for all the sensory overload I experience from the hot summer heat while I drive, the congested roads, the lights, signs and hoards of people at stores. Over the years I have developed a mysterious anxiety and paranoia of driving the interstate even. I have borderline personality disorder but I’ve always known myself to be a highly sensitive person. My early life and environment cause me to be empathetic to people and surroundings to protect myself and it has only increased with time. The world just doesn’t seem to be pleasant for a soul like me so I keep to myself mostly and soak up the peace, quiet and solitude all I can. It keeps me balanced mentally, emotionally and spiritually. My home is my world. It provides all I need and allows me to create an atmosphere suited just for my needs. It’s a place of beauty, harmony and creativity. Why would I leave it for the world? 😅 And yes, I catch a lot of criticism and flack for how I choose to live. I question everything and I think for myself above all else. I like who I’m discovering and I hope to find others like me online.❤
Well done for living your life your way.
@@professorgraemeyorston Thank you 😇
A very interesting video! I believe that her sister Lavinia said it best when she said that Emily “needed time to think,” and that is why she became reclusive.
It is what I thought of first.
She certainly devoted a lot of time to thinking.
🤔
@@chaosdweller ha ha ha!
taken as a series of emotional reactions to the thought of interacting with others, rather than some condition, makes sense to me. i am mostly a recluse also. i always come up with a reason not to get involved and yes... throw out my thoughts into a poem. i am hard on myself for not getting involved but do nothing about it.
If you're happy with your life then no problem, if not, think about talking to someone,.
Possibly she was highly sensitive and incredibly gifted at writing and that ill health made her feel vulnerable thus seeking peace in her room to focus completely on her work. Certainly made me think a great deal about her. I watched the movie 'A Quiet Passion' which was extremely good.
I missed that one, I'll see if I can find it.
@@professorgraemeyorston It is a good film.
I found that film unbearable and inaccurate. Sue was in one scene.
I'll have to check that out! She was a Sagittarius which if you know anything about astrology would make her bold statements about not conforming to church spot on. Sagittarius' are known for their bold statements. However, I think she was highly sensitive too and that came out through her poetry which is completely normal. It wasn't like she was using morphine or opium!
I have 3 remarks to her situation:
1) Would it be bothering people that much if she was a male? Because there are examples of scientists/authors who were also almost isolated, but as they were often taken care about by either their wives or other people around, it wasn't considered as an isolation... (But she couldn't be married or even in a relationship, I think it was Virginia Woolf who made some "discoveries" that women with children have very hard times to find calm to create).
2) What would she do, if she was not rich enough to just... exist? How many similarly creative minds esp. of women were lost to everyday burdens that prevented them to write or involve in progress of any kind?
3) Was it possible she had some kind of vitamin and/or mineral deficiency (like D or B12, magnesium, calcium etc.) that were interconnected and then worsen by her not going out? E.g. a tetany can manifest by various neurological issues and breathing difficulties and even seizures, while it's also connected to psychological problems (I know people who had panic attacks and tetanic symptoms and both got better by dealing with the deficiencies).
I think it was a combination of many different issues, some societal and some personal, and yes perhaps some nutritional.
I think things went horribly wrong when she moved back home and her parents died. To leave her room was a reminder of her parents dying. The house turned into her tomb. I wonder what would have happened if she had delayed going home for a few years and continued to bloom.
good points
Point 2 I agree with....
Why are they questioning her withdrawal from her social life? She lived in a time when it was expected that a single daughter should look after a bedridden relative. She also wasn't supported financially so she didn't have the extra household help that might have let her escape for a few hours. That would have been depressing, yet she kept up a lively engagement with her neighbour and wrote letters and many poems. She made the best of her situation. With no one else to care for her mother what choice did she have? I admire her greatly.
All that make sense, but why then would she not even be in the same room as her doctor.
@@professorgraemeyorston You would have to ask her.
@@professorgraemeyorston I think you might be overlooking how Emily might feel towards her doctor. Isn't the highest rate of sociopathy in the so-called caring professions? And perhaps like many women, she might have felt the doctor's evaluation would go beyond the clinical. Besides, this is one small town full of gossips!
The most prolific serial killer in the English-speaking world was a doctor, a general practitioner who made house calls. All his patients, including his victims, loved him.
Her poetry stands alone as groundbreaking, without having to know anything about her life. I am so glad it was not destroyed, as she wished it to be. She was obviously functioning, helping to run a household. My bet is that she didn’t want to get married, and had an anxiety disorder also. The family could afford servants, and she could afford to do as she liked.
Functioning to an extent, but how well we really don't know.
Can't even be dead with somebody putting the boot in.
I visited her home and had the tour. I was struck by the fact that she rarely left home---did she see her home as a haven, a place where she could explore the wider world yet be safe knowing she wouldn't be hurt? Did she suffer losses in relationships that so moved her to become reclusive? Or, was she ill---either psychologically or physically? So many possibilities to try to explain her talent and way with words. Was she on the autism spectrum? Did she see too deeply into the natural world and state of human emotions?
No one has any definitive answers, so we can only speculate. But, we can't deny her genius for making poetry, celebrating the insignifcant and ordinary, and elevating the powers of keen observation to some of the most mundane things in life that captured her attention.
I would love to visit - there is something about being the spaces that people have lived that bring them alive.
@@professorgraemeyorston Her room is sparsely furnished. She didn't need clutter or excess in her life. Almost spartan, like her poems.
At least she wrote great poetry.
I listened to this podcast today and decided to read her poetry for the first time in about 50 years. The first one I came upon was Wild Nights, written in 1861 at a time when her seclusion was setting in. What I see here is great yearning and hopelessness, the futile winds, no compass or chart. Very moving and sad.
Wild nights - Wild nights!
Were I with thee
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile - the winds -
To a Heart in port -
Done with the Compass -
Done with the Chart!
Rowing in Eden -
Ah - the Sea!
Might I but moor - tonight -
In thee!
Why is she given such an aggressive voice in this video? It doesn't fit the overall calm mood of the documentary.
It didn't quite come out as we were expecting - still experimenting with the AI.
It's so grating and god awful I almost clicked out a dozen times.
@@professorgraemeyorston why did you give her a mid-Atlantic wannabe Katherine Hepburn accent? It sounds very unnatural. I'm from Amherst. Even in the 19th century, we didn't sound like that.
@@professorgraemeyorston srsly, I'll record something for you for free if you wanna redo it---it's been nagging at the back of my mind all day! I can send you some samples if you're interested
Yes please, racatiwood! So this is AI! It’s horrendous.
Creativity rides the tides of love and there is much love and much to love in Emily Dickinson's self-expression. Nothing was "wrong" with her. She was a unique individual who lived a unique life.
“Creativity rides the tides of love.” Poetic, I love it.
I can really feel for Emily Dickinson. When I was in my twenties I locked myself in an apartment for 5 years. Finally I was able to go out but not completely. I still battle with agoraphobia and it's taken so much from me. If you're living with this condition, don't accept it and NEVER give up. Never say that you suffer from this condition instead say that you battle with this condition. You will lose battles but you will win battles too and ultimately you and I will win this war.
Thanks so much for allowing Emily Dickinson to be enigmatic and keep it to herself, even in her death. As herd animals, we respond, or react to the world we are born into. Making the recognition of others the measure of success or worth is understandably thin. Being conventionally orderly is hardly a crime against humanity, even if we may surrender to it out of fear of not being visible. We are born into the reclusion of our essential person, so retreating there as a refuge from bores, over-achievers and extroverts., i.e, staying indoors, can be what it is even without being as flagrant as Emily was not even trying. She is visible as she thought it best to be, in the living trail of her poems left like bread-crumbs in the forest.
Thank you for a very interesting insight.
We may have been separated at birth. Your writing is excellent, also. I love the way you used "reclusion." I understand why you did, and it enabled you to make that sentence remarkably precise. ( Me, I think I'd have picked "seclusion," but I don't quarrel with your choice. )
@@bobtaylor170 🤝🏼
Thanks Bob, I'm not sure I debated much with Self about the choice of "reclusion," but I appreciate your comment. Perhaps we should consider this: reclusion is something Emily did to herself, whereas seclusion suggests something imposed. ED was a strong willed person, judging from everything we can see, so I will still think reclusion. Do you find satisfaction in how she appears to speak to an alter-ego of some sort, and not the reader. We, as readers, have to choose to show up. I'm a Wallace Stevens fan for the same reason. ED is a USAmerican Original.
That was absolutely fascinating, Graeme! She had a lot of grief and heartache in her life. Perhaps she withdrew because she wanted to write in same way Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville West had and didn’t want to be distracted by trivial social matters? There are several strands of other background issues such as her mother’s coldness but none of it seems to be enough to account for her withdrawal from life. I liked your open ending.
Thank you, I'm sure that was part of it but if she wanted to dedicate her life to writing why was she so reluctant to publish - was it her father's prohibition?
@@professorgraemeyorston As mentioned in the video, Emily stated herself that she’d rather be naked in public than share her poems with the world. I can possibly relate, as an amateur writer who pours her guts into what she writes, in that it is so painfully personal and private and the thought of my writing - and I - being judged is abhorrent. ☺️ Perhaps she needed a proper mentor/encouragement in the absence of self confidence.
@@ahill4642 good point. It sounds like she mainly was writing for herself. Some people don’t feel the need to have an audience, some are actually put off by the idea. From her quote you referred to, it sounds like that was the case.
@@pammcclung861
It can be a way of expunging personal demons. Souly a process of cathartic expression by which you need not be judged.
This is fascinating. I relate so much to her. Between having bad parents, chronic illness, being sensitive and creative, living in a small overly religious and fake town. I left my home town several times and for reasons beyond my control had to move back. I dont isolate when I'm not home. I do when I am because my mother sabatages any relationship that she can't control. My doctors say I'm depressed, but i don't subscribe to that diagnosis. I am quite content reading or working on my art alone. It's much better than dealing with small town rumor and drama. I have friends outside this small town that i have met on my travels and we have remained friends for years. Social media makes it easier to keep in touch with them. And they are always just out of reach for my mother to sabatage.
Thank you, this is a very interesting insight. I wonder how Emily would have coped with social media!
@@professorgraemeyorston I wonder if it would have helped her mentally. I know they say prolonged use of social media has its own mental health risks, but to someone who has friends elsewhere, its extremely helpful. Double edged sword I guess
@@professorgraemeyorston she would have hated it, trust me
There are a lot of bullying trolls
out there, but they shrink back into the woodwork when you challenge them with the objective truth. Emily would have to have a flip phone......
@@catherinehazur7336 sure. If you use it wisely tho, you can easily block trolls. And don't take what they say seriously. If you do you'll be in trouble. It's not personal. Most of the time they don't even know you. So why would you take what they say as gospel?
@@tiffanym1108 why do you assume that I take what they say as Gospel? I was putting myself in E.D.'s shoes
Being a sensitive soul, she probably might not like to dive deep into the darkness that social media can be. But then she might. She lived her life during a different era.....she was an enigma
Your astute professor vibe and sophisticated yet accessible demeanor is crisp and captivating. Thank you for the solid mental health-focused bio!
Glad you enjoyed it.
Can relate to choosing to be alone, liking my own company, while open to the right people showing up as they do. Key is having a great sense of humor, laughing at everything, especially myself. My Mom was Jana Vee Norcross from Odessa, West Texas, making us related to Emily. Her sister had the family tree done in the 1960s. Im a novelist as of 72 years old, the Grandma Moses of Literature, writing adventure stories, a trilogy of novels, flash fiction for young adults.
There must be something in the genes!
If her lifetime purpose was to write poetry..then she was functioning just fine..beautifully well I would say.
She was an artist - a great artist - nothing more needs said.
Yes stop analyzing her!
there’s more to a person than just their artistic products
She was a person with many problems, somehow I doubt you would say this about Michael Jackson orPrince
Now I know why I love her poems.
People like myself who prefer to be a introvert and live in solitude..... why do people come to conclusion that we must have a mental health issue?
Yes!!! 🙏🏻
Always a sad figure to me but perhaps she lived the way she preferred. A quiet genius we're lucky to know if it wasn't for her sister publishing Emilie's work.
That is a question I didn't really pose - was she happy with her isolation?
Read “Lives Like Loaded Guns” for a fuller explanation of how Dickinson’s work was first published.
She corresponded with people she wanted to be in touch with, and she had people in the house and nearby for face to face.
@@professorgraemeyorston As an introvert myself, I cherish and enjoy every moment I have of solitude. The lockdowns certainly taught me that I am miserable when compelled to socialise. I noticed the extroverts in my life struggle though, much the same as I struggle when I'm with others. Introverts are a minority but a sizeable one, extroverts certainly assume we must be sad or depressed because that's what depression looks like to them.
Wild Nights!
She was a genius, & her poetry was her life. Without disregarding other life factors, I just think it was a personal choice-much like nuns chose God, prayer & meditation-she chose mostly life alone with her thoughts, & writing some of the most unique poetry ever written.
One of the greatest poets in history. Who cares if she doesn’t like crowds? I don’t like crowds either.
I have been suffering with very similar symptoms as Emily my whole adult life and for the past year i have been getting panoc attacks on an increasing scale. I understand how a fear of collapsing in public and an even bigger fear of not being able to teust your own body may cause you to not go out.
However i haven't been diagnosed with something either !
Im currently on antidepressants which help a little but i still get panic atracks just not as much as i did. I like people and seeing friends but honestly i mostly feel exhausted after interactions
I wonder how Emily would have responded to medication.
As an artist and writer I’ve often envied her lifestyle and her courage to choose it. For an introvert it takes so much energy to socialize. If she had a mental illness, I don’t think she would have been so productive.
I don't think she had a mental illness, but more likely was on the autistic spectrum.
I worked in the home next door on Triangle Street, shared property line. the woman I worked for was a huge fan and I think it's why she bought the house. this woman, Lynn Margulis, was an impressive person in her own right so if she had praise for her, I wanted to learn more. Amherst is a special town still; you can easily recognize it even in the old photos. we have town gossip/rumors about Emily that float around but...most of us locals hardly hit the h in Amherst, tho. more like it's nearly silent. thanks for the perspective
Thank you, it's interesting that there are still local beliefs/rumours.
I would venture to say it was mostly her artistic nature! This New England professional artist/illustrator/painter and American composer, an introvert and HSP i.e. highly sensitive person, can relate to a degree though I do get out and about! But, even the late great American painter Georgia O'Keeffe said "Be of the world, but not in it"! People need to understand that many artists need solitude in order to create! My youngest daughter, a published author of short stories graduated from UMass Amherst and while she was there we visited Emily Dickinsons's home! We saw where she isolated herself and wrote and also were able to walk through her gardens. The home was restored and bright and airy. What was really weird was her brother Austin's Italianate home down the path through some woods. The house was dark, dreary and dusty and not one thing was changed since the mid 1800s. It was eerie to say the least and seemed like the people who lived there, just got up and left things the way they were. The upstairs nursery had blocks and toys on the floor and there was a very old Steinway grand piano in the living room that hadn't been played in over 100 years...spooky! Most likely, haunted with the spirits of the past! In the end, it was probably a combination of things mentioned here! A very complex personality indeed. May she rest in peace~💜💜
I always stop and talk to her when I go north ,but I don't leave paper & pencil .So beautiful in her writings.Why does everybody judge her?
I'm trying to understand her, not judge her.
@richardallen: Emily is an angel.
I can totally relate to her. Perhaps she just didn't feel safe, appreciated, or understood. People can be judgemental, snipey, or gossips. Her life was lived through her inner world, not the external. Being from Massachusetts (the witch burning state) and having been raised by a puritanical family, it's easy for me to see how she could have gone agoraphobic. Your comfort zone shifts and the world for an HSP/Empath feels overwhelming.
I like your alternative name for Massachusetts!
Shaming and blaming is over-rated, and it's not aerobic, never mind what the label says. Let's all take a few deep breaths.
Well said Lori Anne, I relate to her a lot too.
I very much enjoyed your presentation.
It inspired me to buy a large volume of Emily Dickison's works.
Wonderful! I love it when people are inspired to continue the journey into someone's life by reading their work or more about them.
''stand alone in rebellion'' 🖤 Emily Dickenson 🕯
I believe she was an empathic soul who desired private isolation for peace in her life.
I'm sure you're right.
Private isolation is OK.
Creative is fueled by isolation . The space and time to explore it fully
But few people have had to take it to the extreme that Emily did.
She was a genius maybe her personality and her creativity went hand in hand
Possibly - do you think she considered herself to be a genius?
@@professorgraemeyorston yes
She was an unloaded Gun and a great poet.
A real artist, a rational loner, gifted beyond our understanding, happy with her creative self. Good video
Thank you.
@@professorgraemeyorston sure, I was a professor of American literature for forty years. I like your videos very much.
Coming in here as the lightweight, I just want to recommend the Apple series “Dickinson”. As much as I always loved her poems, watching this series is such a beautiful escape. Of course she’s more beautiful in this than in reality, thank you Hollywood, but it’s still such a gorgeous way to feast upon her lyrical writings and the events in her life that may have formed her artistic genius.
She is … and will always be my favorite poet of all time ~
I agree - I think it is a very cleverly written show.
English major here that went to Oxford. She was nuts. All this adoration is ridiculous, her poetry maddening.
"She was nuts". What the hell does that mean?
So, why is Emily's choice to remain home (as elder daughters were often expected to do) considered odd? Talking from behind doors is odd. Being a "home girl" is not. Being able to choose a lifestyle that preserved her independence and enjoyment of nature and "ordinary" work is also a factor -- her father could afford to support her and this allowed her to make this choice. Interesting that amid all these theories of mental disorders tick fever or Epstein Barr or other debilitating virus (not yet identified but surely around and effecting people during her time) is not floated as a theory. Not a doc, but I'd say anxiety that grew as the grieving process failed to come to the stage of acceptance. Be interesting to know what took place while she was at her aunt's house after the first terrible grief. Apparently whatever was said or done there helped. However, trauma and grief continued w/o a useful philosophy to mitigate the shock, fear and pain. By all accounts, many, many women "went crazy" after too much death (particularly the death of their children) in those earlier centuries.
She was considered odd in her own lifetime - but I agree there were many factors that could have led to her reclusiveness.
Read Darkly Dickinson by B.D. Watson. You will get every answer you ever had about Emily Dickinson based on over 15 years of intense research. It is very sad, but most people who have read it said it was worth the read.
Please professor read my book Darkly Dickinson by B.D. Watson. I did so much research. I would have loved to have contributed to your youtube video. I studied her for over 15 years nonstop. @@professorgraemeyorston
Great work on the videos. They’re very informative and enjoyable. Not a big fan of the soundbite quotations though.
Please leave her alone. She was smart to withdraw. She was not needy for people. She was her own person. Healthy minded. Not lonely
I agree, I hate society and enjoy being alone and away from it.
That's fine if she was, but that's not always what her poetry implies.
So what if she was not conventional. Few great artists are. Leave her alone.
@@marknewton6984why? This is a historical subject. And she’s no longer with us. Should no subject be discussed? You are quite the ❄️
Yes, I agree with the previous comment by Sandy Brown. Why do we think that choosing to be a recluse means someone is mentally ill. Not everyone wants to be with others. I need lots of alone time to be able to hear my own thoughts. It's a beautiful thing. We should encourage it. Often, I can't stand other people. That doesn't make me ill. It makes me an individual with my own set of needs.
Emily Dickinson's poetry is incredibly rich, subtle, dense, and insightful. She was brilliant and revolutionary. By the way, locals do not pronounce the "h" in "Amherst." It's pronounced as if it were written "Amerst."
Thank you - I concluded that as I'm not a local it sounded a bit wrong to drop the h.
“That I did always love I give thee proof…” would have made a fitting end to this fascinating lecture and revealed more of her heart’s blood.
I am watching this because i see similarities between Emily and myself, i found it interesting what you had to say. I doubt we will ever know the real reason she was reclusive, i started to become reclusive in my 30's and i am now 48 and haven't left the house for 3 years. There is nothing wrong with me, i don't care much for the outside world and this is how i feel content to live, perhaps Emily had similar reasons, or her own reasons and maybe it wasn't because there was something wrong with her.
Yes, you could be right.
I can relate . I believe Emily had lupus. I struggle with SLE and prior to my diagnosis I did not leave my home for several years.
Jen, was curious as to how you get food and can afford to not work.
@@juliajohnson5276 I get a delivery once a week from the supermarket, they leave it at my door.
Don't leave the Boat. Chef in Apocalypse Now.
Sadness and metaphysical beauty flowing from her pen. Let her words speak to your soul. Watch more than one video about her life. I'm going to look for articles and a full biography or two..
Did she need to be so sad?
@@professorgraemeyorston Not all of her enormous body of work is sad.
No flies buzzed.
I am so thrilled to have come across your channel, can't stop watching. Thank you!
This was well made. We appreciate the time, energy, and effort that went into all of this. We will support you and this channel no matter what.
Thank you, I really appreciate your feedback.
She remains an enigma. Thanks Doc.
I had/have agoraphobia. Didn't leave home much for 10 years, only if needed. Difficult for me to imagine now, but realise it could happen again.
I just wanted to say: I really like this video. I have been writing a paper for the past couple of months on the link between mental illness and creativity, and one of the subjects I am examining is Emily Dickinson. This documentary is one of the sources I have been heavily using in discussing her seclusion due to the fact that you very clearly talk about just about every possible theory, and most of my other sources have not been so generous. I won't claim I agree with everything you say, but certainly propose some very interesting questions and arguements
Glad to be of service!
There was a questioning of her sexuality. She may have been a bisexual and she didn't conform to the mainstream religious belief that would explain a lot. It's normal that she didn't feel like she would fit in in the society. She probably had CPTSD because it feels like she wasn't loved by her caregivers and she couldn't find meaning, and everyone she cared about kept dying while she survived. Not having CPTSD wouldn't be normal. Either having a personality disorder or CPTSD would have been normal for her case. She may have had social anxiety which is something that gives you a panic attack even when you are alone in a public place, just in case you encounter someone and you wouldn't know how to react. She probably had a low key depression all her life. Something like dysthymia which doesn't easily go away and lasts for years. Physical illness feeds it too, you feel fatigued, confused and you can't trust your energy level and wellbeing and you feel like you are destined to feel this way. You can have a major depressive episode upon that so it's double depression. I'm not sure whether she had those. She probably did. It may just look like physical illness sometimes because not everyone goes to bed and cries and cries. Some people just shut down or sometimes you just shut down. I speak from experience.
All of those are possibilities.
@Fill Your Cup I agree with all that you said. Very well put. You describe dysthymia quite well and it has (or can have) differing symptoms and also physical ailments associated as well as anxiety in one form or another and can last decades. It also sounds like she did not have a strong support system. Her poetry was likely her main antidote or means to deal with her condition. When I can muster up the energy, my creative outlets are one of the few things that lift my spirits and give me enjoyment and make me feel better.
I can relate to her on so many levels.
As a writer who has similar traits to Emily … I conclude that there was nothing wrong with her. Different ages influence different behavior. I believe she was very much talented and true to her art.
Read Darkly Dickinson by B.D. Watson. You will get every answer you ever had about Emily Dickinson based on over 15 years of intense research. It is very sad, but most people who have read it said it was worth the read.
This was the best treatment ive seen of this topic. Her blackouts late in life made me think of hypo glycemia although eschemia is another possibility. All in all she seems to have been the victim of bad luck, poor health, restricted social circumstances and an unusually sensitive nature - all combining to create an extreme case of reclusiveness.
And reclusion fostered her poetic muse as well, which may have contributed to her choices.
I became to emotional at church once and had an emotional induced seizure… it was horrible, I only leave home (my nest) when I have to! The more I hear about her, the more alike we are and for some reason it makes me feel like less of a freak!
There is an endless variety of people in the world - never feel a freak - just because you might do things differently to other people doesn't mean that what you're doing is wrong.
Her dog, Carlo, died when she was 36. The dog was her constant companion. She ventured out daily with Carlo and even attended a party a friend had at her home; she also went on a trip to Washington, D.C with her sister. It wasn't until after Carlo's death that she became increasingly private. She also had a debilitating disease which made going out in public difficult. Read the book, "Shaggy Muses," by Maureen Adams, pages 99-137 for a true description and account of what Emily Dickinson was really like. "My Wars are Laid Away in Books" by Alfred Habegger is perhaps the best biography about Emily Dickinson's life and what really happened during her life with regard about her later reclusive nature.
There are lots of books and papers about Emily, all making compelling cases for their own pet theories, how should we decide which one to believe?
She was a type 4 in the enneagram. Deep sea divers of the phyc. I am a four also. Solitude is necessary to rewind. The Matrix is exhausting. Depression often meets us but we emerge wiser each time.
I suspect she was a genius, and she lived the way she did because she liked it that way.
Fair enough!
I live in the same area that Emily did. I have felt her influence and presence all around this valley. She was not strange or an oddball. She simply preferred a quiet life.
That's one interpretation.
Emily: making self isolation popular long before covid. A woman ahead of her time.
She was in so many ways!
24:53
This.
As soon as you mentioned the lack of nurturing and attachment early on in the video, I KNEW that this was the cause of ALL that followed.
100%
If your earliest caregiver cannot connect with anyone and never forges a connection with you, to demonstrate to you how it works, how it *feels*... doesn't demonstrate and model the maternal role, how can that isolated child ever connect with anyone?
They can't. It's an early lack of attachment and nurturing safety, protection and care. No doubt in my mind. What she experienced and how she responded was a completely natural and predictable reaction to a "caregiver" who didnt provide the care an infant needs.
There is an important, vital, developmental window in which the building blocks of forming relationships were not laid. It leads to a lonely and isolated life.
An outsider looking in to a world that is forever closed to you.
Attachment is important, but there may also have been neurodevelopmental issues, affecting the degree to which she was able to reciprocate emotional bonding.
Can people just be different? Does difference always need to be pathologized?
You are quite right - this is the nature of the debate going on at the moment with the neurodivergence movement
I see her life as progression along the way of spiritual awakening as typical of most saints and yogis...the need for silence and isolation....not an illness.
Coming from a very neurodiverse family, it sounds very much that she was twice exceptional with autism and/or adhd. A very large percentage of creative geniuses are neurodivergent. Their neurodivergence gives them intellectual and creative super powers. Most people on the autism spectrum have anxiety because the world is sensory overload, and emotions are more intense than for neurotypical people. It seems like a pretty likely possibility for Emily...also considering that her parents seemed to have some autistic traits in her descriptions of them too...and it is highly genetic. Also, a disproportionate number of neurodivergent people are gay or bisexual or sexually nonconforming. Autistic people are often nonconforming in general, and don't follow trends just because they are trendy. They make thoughtful, calucated, rational decisions...much like she did with her views on religion.
I agree.
After five videos in a row, I'm one of your many fans, Dr. Yorston. I really love your approach to mental health amongst the deservedly famous; you combine deep professional intelligence with humanity and verve (some of the actor voiceovers are maybe a bit peri-caricaturist?!)
I wonder if you're interested in presenting the intriguing life of Alexander Borodin? Not exactly a paradigm of mental pathology, he was quite the opposite--countenancing two very successful careers in music and chemistry, while supporting friends financially and advancing women's rights to education. And all that as the "quiet" but beloved son of a relationship outside marriage, in a very tendentious era of European and Russian cultural history. He's one of my personal, political and artistic heroes, and a prime example of overachievement in an eminently healthy "Renaissance" individual.
Yes the Emily voice wasn't a success I'm afraid. Borodin is a favourite of mine too - musically and for being a scientist with a passion for the arts!
I too can sympathise with Emily as I have written maybe 100 decent poems myself that cover many aspects of life and prefer my own company. I believe she was acutely sensitive due to her own inert passions and that made mingling with ordinary "boring and opinionated" people difficult.
Thanks for sharing.
You make the best shows on RUclips. Thank you so much!
Wow, thank you!
I love Emily❤ thank you, she was a rare soul
She was indeed.
In my university prep English literature course we spent much focus on Emily Dickinson. It was a consensus within the class, as mostly young women in rural Canada, that Dickinson retreated from society as she was a woman of genius living in the mid 19th century. If she had involved herself in society she would have been expected to be married, raise children, submit herself to her husband and give up her art and freedoms. As young rural women this made a good deal of sense to us at the time.
It does make sense - until you examine the extent of her seclusion. She could have remained a spinster without hiding away from the world completely.
@@professorgraemeyorston I get that but honestly as an introvert and a person uninterested in raising children or taking care of a husband I might have hidden myself away on my family's estate (if my family had an estate and I got along with them) if I were highly creative and talented and didn't need to work outside my home to support myself.
There is nothing particularly physically or psychologically unwell about me. I have certainly never been diagnosed with anything.
I do agree that it would seem she did indeed pass away due to some physical ailment versus mental anguish or illness.
I think there's a simple explanation for Emily Dickinson's reclusive lifestyle. I relate to it myself. 3:33 Apparently she was what's defined nowadays as "emotionally neglected." Besides this, it comes down to temperament or personality, that is, being introverted by nature.
Possibly, but I think she was more complex than that.
I’m starting to binge on ur content Professor YORSTON. I just subbed to u yesterday 4/21/24x. Love that u are a forensic psychiatrist. I was a psychology major in college but do to circumstances I dropped out. Love ur analyses of ur subjects here. Anyway I’m trying to catch up on your vids bc I’m so new here. Ty so much for ur uploading of brilliant content.
Welcome aboard!
It is so fascinating that we feel compelled to explain creative genius through a disease or a malady. Dickinson was, quite simply, uber creative. Only now are we beginning to understand such personalities. She viewed and examined the world through eyes "normies" do not possess. As such, she shunned worlds that could harm her. It was self preservation. Her "passing out" or "fainting" is interesting. A few years ago I went through the same thing ... I had low blood pressure. Simple as that. A sedentary, non-physical life and routine would certainly explain. What people miss is that she was fortunate to have a "name" a "home" and "income." Without those, she would have been homeless and anonymous. Unknown to any of us. Family is important ... an aspect no one seems to want to admit -- in an increasing age of "wokeism." For those who live/lived in small towns, "Emily" is quite normal. Why do want to define her as abnormal when her poems, more than anything, describe an incredible being with incredible gifts of analysis of the human condition--which is what ART is all about.
The passing outs can, as I understand it, also be caused by dangerously high blood pressure. I had probably a dozen episodes of it in the 2009 - 2012 period. I'm also a neurological patient, but one day in 2012, my neurologist said, "Well, today's appointment has been converted to a blood pressure appointment." It took several years to find a med I could tolerate ( Diovan nearly killed me by causing hyponatremia ) which worked, but eventually, I did.
It's extremely depressing to wake up at 2:30 in the morning, with the sandwich you had been eating at about 9:00 the previous evening scattered on your lap. Once when this happened, I realized I had a big chunk of the sandwich in the corner of my mouth. God must have kept me from choking.
I think your comment is superb. You're right, "emilys" seem to be a phenomenon of smaller town American life.
She could indeed simply have been a creative genius - but perhaps just as it is wrong to over-pathologise, it is not right to dismiss the role of illness and neurodivergence in shaping behaviour. In Emily's case we just don't know.
@@bobtaylor170 Curious as to what BP med you ended up with. Right now the only one I can tolerate is Metoprolol.
@@13soap13 amlodipine. 5mgs is the usual dose, but I need 10. My BP last time was something like 124/72 ( That's not exactly it, I don't remember the precise reading, but it was in that area. )
I'm confused why you'd bring up "woke-ism" when it's the "woke" people you talk about who do discuss how much family and wealth shape your lifestyle and how you are perceived. Kinda seems like you shoehorned it into the conversation.
Thank you for your independent presentation and care. I appreciate this more level, objective assessment and reticence to jump to pathologizing what is not readily understood or known. The wild speculations seem to grow more abundant with time and trend. Emily has been a first love since I was introduced in high school. She is the same and always. Her words have brought me much comfort and solace, when nothing and no one else could.
Thank you.
Dear Professor, I quite enjoyed your exploration of into the enigma of Emily Dickinson. Your exclusion of mental maladies I definitely concur. Emily was an highly empathetic being which perhaps forced her to the road less traveled. Her constant creative drive, her obviously high intellect and curiosity about many things most certainly can result in episodes of exhausting over stimulation. Some people are in the world but not of the world. Emily’s attempts to find her place must have frustrated and brought with it a miasma that unsettled her. I don’t find it in the least bit strange that she chose a rather cloistered life. I chose to live that way myself when I got older. The heart and the mind simply exhaust themselves with deep contemplative thought. I also greed that she probably did not have epilepsy but her spells were ischemic episodes in her brain. I’ve had 2 and her response coming out of them mirror my own experience. Emily was Emily. Her personality may have been odd to others…..but deep down I believed she knew she was choosing her actions and the path those actions freely directed her . Thank you for an evening of a little sherry and a good insightful study of Emily Dickinson.
Glad you enjoyed it and thank you for sharing her own experiences.
The archetype of the agonizingly sensitive, emotionally mangled and physically weak creative genius seems to be a myth. Most creative geniuses have proven to be rather robust people. Bach must have had some natural upper in his system to have enabled him to sire all those children. ( Double entendre free for your enjoyment. )
79 years old and only recently discovered her... thank You Apple TV.. and cast... smitten
I loved the show, but many Dickinson fans loathe it.
Liked and subscribed I will have to go back and look at more videos…awesome…
Thank you - there's about 100 to choose from!
Holy-smoke, what a wonderful video.
1) It was possible to survive tuberculosis/consumption back then, although not many did survive. She may have feared that she could still transmit it (if she had it). She also may have feared being exposed to germs from others, and that could explain her avoidance behavior. 2) As someone else stated, she may have developed agoraphobia. The description of being in church sounds very similar to agoraphobia. That's something that usually develops gradually, although it can come on suddenly for some people. 3) OCD she could have had OCD, and avoiding germs or unfamiliar people could have been a manifestation of it. 4) PTSD. Could she have been raped or molested at school? Was she impregnated, whether through a consentual or forceful situation? Being sent to live with a distant relative was often used as a means to have a child in secret. If that was the case, she would have been required to not be seen by anyone and stay hidden. That could have resulted in a continuing desire to remain hidden or a fear of being seen. 4) Depression is likely, but I don't think she was bipolar. In a manic state she might have done something impulsive, such as self-publishing her poems, or some other action that would have been frowned upon during that time period. 6) disfigurement? Perhaps she had some kind of visible flaw, even as simple as acne, that she wanted to conceal? Or, alternatively, there is a disorder where someone believes they are disfigured or unsightly even though there are no visible indications of it.
Thanks Laura, some interesting suggestions - I think that is why she remains elusive, because so many explanations are possible.
A fascinating insight into the life and mind of Emily Dickinson. Thank you 🙏
Glad you enjoyed it.
She was lucky to have the privilege to be able to stay at home and write.
True, most people did not.
Thank you for doing this ❤