I think the whole Mary Tood being crazy thing was just a massive case of gaslighting that historians continue to this day
She knew the slavers from the south (including the VP) had conspired to murder her husband and no one publicly believed her because they didn't want to reignite the Civil War even though it was obvious she was right so they called her crazy
Yeah. Abe Lincoln also suffered from depression but no one was institutionalizing him for madness. Or depicting him as a madman in popular novels. Mary Todd did have mental health issues, though. I think it's more that the "madness" is a simplification and an overstatement rather than an outright fabrication. Anyway, it's been more than twenty years since I read the Vidal novel so I can't remember how much he leaned into the "madwoman" angle rather than a more modern analysis.
Edit - Since he was pressing the syphilis angle he probably did make her as "mad" as possible, but I really don't remember. He did make guilt a major element of Lincoln's depression, so it wasn't the "damn that Mary Todd for having feelings and therefore interfering with the great man of history" attitude I feel like I've seen in other fictionalized depictions of Lincoln.
I think the whole Mary Tood being crazy thing was just a massive case of gaslighting that historians continue to this day
She knew the slavers from the south (including the VP) had conspired to murder her husband and no one publicly believed her because they didn't want to reignite the Civil War even though it was obvious she was right so they called her crazy
Yeah. Abe Lincoln also suffered from depression but no one was institutionalizing him for madness. Or depicting him as a madman in popular novels. Mary Todd did have mental health issues, though. I think it's more that the "madness" is a simplification and an overstatement rather than an outright fabrication. Anyway, it's been more than twenty years since I read the Vidal novel so I can't remember how much he leaned into the "madwoman" angle rather than a more modern analysis.
Edit - Since he was pressing the syphilis angle he probably did make her as "mad" as possible, but I really don't remember. He did make guilt a major element of Lincoln's depression, so it wasn't the "damn that Mary Todd for having feelings and therefore interfering with the great man of history" attitude I feel like I've seen in other fictionalized depictions of Lincoln.