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There is a history of mental
illness in Virginia Woolf’s family,
specifically mood disorders. The women on her mother’s side had been
mildly eccentric and very active.
On her father’s side, there were generations of quiet and gloomy
men. Both sides contained
writers. Of her father’s second
marriage, she was the fourth child, several of
which had psychological symptoms during their lives. Her brother, Thoby,
tried to throw himself from a window of his preparatory school. Another brother, Adrian, suffered from
many nervous disorders. Vanessa,
her sister, had nervousness similar to Virginia’s.
These were all her mother’s side.
On her father’s side, her grandfather went crazy and a cousin starved
himself to death. Her father was
the worse case, but there is no real evidence of manic-depressive illness
(Richter).
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