While reading this section of Mrs. Dalloway I paid particular notice to the character Septimus Smith. Most likely because he’s the character that my group is assigned to map. At first he struck me as a bit odd but as the narrative moves forward a bit it becomes obvious that Septimus suffers from a severe case of PTSD caused by his involvement in the War (Note the book doesn’t it say it directly but judging from one of the dates, 1890, it was probably World War I). It causes him to hallucinate and relive the worst parts of his time there.
I don’t want to try to address everything that he sees or how it affects him as whole. It’s enough for me to understand that he has PTSD and suffers from mental illness. No what interests me is how, his wife and his doctor in particular, responds to his having an illness.
I emphasize that word because despite the fact that we refer to mental illness as the same as a cold, or the flu, or some other physical condition we don’t treat it like one. We lump together all the different kinds of mental illness in this one term and have this instilled notion that if you just had a little more mental fortitude you could overcome it. The thing that people fail to recognize (unfortunately even more so in a spiritual context I’ve found) is that your mind is a part of your body. It’s just as serious as having your arm chopped, perhaps even more so because your mind or your brain is in control of your whole body.
It is telling that in Mrs. Dalloway that Lucrecia (Septimus’s wife) continues to worry about what others are thinking of Septimus. She recognizes that what he did–fight in the War–was brave, but because of the doctors advice and the social stigma of the time she tries her best to hide his problem. She becomes so absorbed in what other people will think. Septimus meanwhile is lost to his visions and nightmares.
As someone with anxiety and depression that hit me. Because even though it’s been nearly a hundred years since the events of this books, among all the magnificent improvements in medicine and technology (including the understanding of mental illness!), that social stigma hasn’t changed much. You’ll begin to see more videos on Youtube or Facebook that raise awareness but, as I’ve painfully found out, that doesn’t mean that the people around you are aware that you, their best friend, classmate, or even their family are being affected by some manner of mental illness. And that’s the part that hurts the most.
