As I have stated before, I believe that Pound suffered from an
undiagnosed manic-depressive (bipolar) disorder.  I am pursiuing that
hypothesis in my biography.
 
                                                Tim Redman
 
On Tue, 11 Aug 1998 12:00:04 PDT jpg13 <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 
> Re Pound's Mental Illness:
>
> I wonder if we might move the discussion beyond questions of sanity or
> insanity, and into much murkier territory.  It seems clear that we can find
> evidence of both from throughout Pound's career.  The St. Elizabeths
> nursing logs recording Pound lying down on the road in the winter and
> claiming that he couldn't go on make it sound like depression, and
> these days we consider depression  a treatable illness, rather than a lifestyle
> choice.  Is Pound's depression a reaction to his earlier psychotic
> periods?  Letters from Pound to Olga in the early 1940s, when he was making
> broadcasts in Rome, show him constantly exhausted, taking frequent naps,
> sleeping long hours--again, it could be a sign of severe depression.
>
> The question seems to me: what kinds of responsibility accrues to the
> language act, either over the radio, or in poetry?  Is there a way we can
> deal with the most eccentric or extreme of Pound's writing without
> putting it in the literary equivalent of an insane asylum? Then again, as
> E.P. put it on his arrival in Italy in 1958: "All America  is an insane
> asylum."
>
> I for one would welcome the input of medical professionals out there, if
> there are any on the list.
>
> Jonathan Gill
> Columbia University
 
Tim Redman
School of Arts and Humanities, JO 31
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