The Beast in White’s Jungle: Manic-Depressive Illness

This chapter discusses White’s illness within the context of medical and subjective accounts of bipolar disorder. It opens with a selective overview of White’s life that highlights the key sites of disruption and signs of illness. It then turns to an overview of manic-depressive illness, followed by a more detailed description of the characteristics of manic, depressive and mixed episodes. It ends with a brief comparison of White’s experiences of illness to those of her contemporary Virginia Woolf. This comparison demonstrates not only the diverse expressions of manic-depressive illness but also the different approaches that the writers themselves as well as family members adopted to cope with it.