Bipolar Expeditions: Mania and Depression in American Culture

by Emily Martin

Until the stigma attached to mental illness eases, which is to say until our cultural understanding of it changes, the best alternative to secrecy and fear is this kind of collective responsibility.

I have found that people in many walks of life in the United States are fascinated by manic behavior and see it as a valuable resource in the everaccelerating spiral of “productivity.”

reluctant to admit they need treatment because it would be taken as a sign of weakness,

Dean’s fate makes it plain that mania is as much an object of horror as desire.

my daily life had already shown me that no part of manic depression is seen simply as an asset.

Plato and Aristotle considered “reason” the defining human characteristic, the means of achieving knowledge, and the prerequisite of ethical freedom.

The assumption that produces this dilemma is that the normal person is wholly rational. I suggest otherwise: in their everyday lives, most people have various degrees of awareness of reality and of the consequences of their actions, various degrees of “reason” in their decisions and opinions.