Virginia Woolf and Leslie Stephen: a father's contribution to psychosis and genius

Leslie Stephen, the father of Virginia Woolf, was a cacophony of contradictions. From all accounts, he was a bully, a manipulator, and a blustering, pessimistic, emotionally dishonest man. Although he could be lovable, charming, whimsical, encouraging, and deeply devoted to his family, he subjugated the adult women in his household and at least one son to exploitation and abuse, demanding (and receiving from his wife and step-daughter) almost total abnegation of self. Julia Stephen, in contrast, was an optimistic, seemingly selfless person, who characteristically presented herself in an "up" mood to the world. Virginia incorporated both parental moods into her character structure, as have a number of the author's cyclothymic patients. Therefore, it is postulated that pessimism and habitual deflating affronts on the part of one parent, in combination with a compulsive "good mood" on the part of the second parent, are a particularly lethal combination of character traits, which in their offspring may contribute to the rapid mood shifting characteristic of manic depression. In contrast to Julie, Stephen was a presence who could not be side-stepped. This combination of sweet and monstrous attributes in her father's nature, and again in the contrasting temperaments of the parental couple, must have been impossible to integrate for the small Virginia, who already was desperately engaged in the struggle for selfhood. She could not complete her development on the oedipal level, although she loved her father dearly, because identification with her mother meant further threat to an identity already weakened at the separation-individuation phase of development. Virginia's solution was to identify with her father in his character, his sexual identity, and his profession. Stephen, who was particularly devoted to Virginia, whom he regarded as an extension of himself, encouraged this identification, and served as her teacher and mentor. In that sense, he truly was the captain of the ship in her voyage To the Lighthouse, master of the currents that swept her onward to the grand light of her genius. A four-fold comparison of Virginia Woolf and Leslie Stephen is made concerning their respective ages of weaning, success in navigating both the rapproachment phase of separation-individuation and the oedipal period, and the ages at which their mothers died. It appears that Virginia lost her mother at those four critical periods when Leslie did not.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)