September 17, 2007
The most unaccountable of machinery:
"My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery — always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud. And why? What's this passion for?"
English novelist Virginia Woolf, writing in a December 28, 1932, letter.
Woolf was one of the most brilliant writers of her generation and a significant influence on the modernist movement of the time.
She also suffered from profound depressions and eventually committed suicide at the age of 59 rather than suffer another mental breakdown.
A recent article in the journal PsyArt examined the work of Woolf and the American poet Sylvia Plath in light of what we now know about the factors that influence the likelihood of suicide.
Link to Wikipedia page on Virginia Woolf.
Link to 'Suicidal Risk Factors in Lives of Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath'.
