Friday, February 19, 2021

my 19th nervous breakdown

    

The Atlantic is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, Massachusetts, as The Atlantic Monthly, a literary and cultural commentary magazine that published leading writers' commentary on the abolition of slavery, about education, and on the other major political issues of that time. Its founders included Francis H. Underwood and prominent writers Ralph Waldo EmersonOliver Wendell Holmes Sr.Henry Wadsworth LongfellowHarriet Beecher Stowe, and John Greenleaf WhittierJames Russell Lowell was its first editor. It is known for publishing literary pieces by leading writers.

After experiencing financial hardship and undergoing several ownership changes in the late 20th century, the magazine was purchased by businessman David G. Bradley, who refashioned it as a general editorial magazine primarily aimed at a target audience of serious national readers and "thought leaders". In 2010, The Atlantic posted its first profit in a decade. In 2016, the periodical was named Magazine of the Year by the American Society of Magazine Editors. In July 2017, Bradley sold a majority interest in the publication to Laurene Powell Jobs's Emerson Collective.

Its website, TheAtlantic.com, provides daily coverage and analysis of breaking news, politics and international affairs, education, technology, health, science, and culture. The Executive Editor of the website is Adrienne LaFrance and the Editor-in-Chief is Jeffrey Goldberg.

 

Although I also subscribe to TIME magazine and 4 newspapers, what I like about the Atlantic is its in-depth discussions of a variety of subjects. The March edition that I got in the mail the other day, for example, covers the voting rights struggle, the monopoly of Amazon, climate change, and mental illness. The last topic, incidentally, is the one I found most intriguing.

As magazines go, it’s actually very cheap, at $50 a year. Since I am an educator, my price is only half of that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlantic

April 1935 was a nervous month. Unemployment in America stood at 20 percent. A potential polio vaccine. The term Duct Bowl made its first appearance newsprint. A thousand-mile storm carried away much of Oklahoma, and Fortune magazine introduced its readers to “The Nervous Breakdown”.

The article quickly turned into a book, which said that the nervous breakdown as widespread as the common cold and the chief source of misery in the modern world.

To a large degree, we have returned to that state today.




 

The coronavirus pandemic.

Wildfires.

Indefinite home schooling.

Post-election political chaos.

QAnon.

Climate change (blizzards in the North East, and widespread power failures in Texas and other southern states).

On top of all that, there are struggles at the personal level. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 16.2 million Americans had at least one major depressive episode in 2016. This represents 6.7% of the U.S. adult population< Depression is most common in ages 18 to 25. (10.9%) and in individuals of two or more races (10.5%). One of our relatives developed agoraphobia at the age of 24, but eventually was cured by heavy doses of yoga.

One of the most recent victims of this phenomena is 25 year- old Thomas Raskin, who killed himself on December 31. A day after his funeral, his dad Jamie was in the United States Capitol building when it was invaded by an angry mob. Almost exactly a month later, Jamie Raskin delivered the opening statement to the SECOND Trump impeachment trial.

In the early days of the 20th century, the more affluent members of society had ways to deal with depression. One of those options was the Hartford Retreat, where you could take six weeks to return to “normal”.

Some of American’s most well know individuals (John D. Rockefeller Jr., Jane Addams, and Max Weber) all acknowledged “breakdowns” – and re-emerged to do their best work. Rockefeller’s most recognized achievements (Rockefeller Center, the national parks, and the art museums) came after his breakdown in 1904, when he spent six months in the south of France for recovery.

A century ago, the famous Battle Creek Sanitorium marketed itself as a “Temple of Health”. (One of its customers was Rockefeller, who spent a week there in 1922). Since it was $3000 a week in today’s dollars, it was out of reach for most people.

Although the United States is lagging behind other counties in the treatment of mental illness, other countries have taken steps to alleviate the problem. Both France and Spain have made “the right to disconnect” from after hours communication an actual legal right.

Nervous breakdowns, as F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote of his own in his 1936 essay “The Crack Up” are “not a matter of levity”.

From 1933 to 1937, Fitzgerald was hospitalized for alcoholism 8 times and arrested several times. Fitzgerald's deteriorating mental state and drinking habits were captured publicly in an article published by Michel Mok titled "The Other Side of Paradise, Scott Fitzgerald, 40, Engulfed in Despair", first published in the New York Post, September 25, 1936. The article is considered to have caused considerable damage to Fitzgerald's reputation and his mental state, allegedly pushing him to attempt suicide after reading it.

By that year, his wife Zelda had become extremely violent and emotionally distressed, and Fitzgerald had her placed in the Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. Nearly bankrupt, Fitzgerald spent most of 1936 and 1937 living in various hotels near Asheville. His attempts to write and sell more short stories faltered. He later referred to this period of decline in his life as "The Crack-Up" in the short story.[ Shortly after the release of this story, Hemingway referred to Fitzgerald as "poor Scott" in his short story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro". Zelda's institutionalization further deteriorated what was left of their marriage. The last time the two saw each other was on a 1939 trip to Cuba. During this trip, Fitzgerald was assaulted when he tried to stop a cockfight and returned to the United States so intoxicated and exhausted that he was hospitalized.

 Fitzgerald died of alcoholism in 1940, at the age of 44.

19th Nervous Breakdown" is a song recorded by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was recorded in late 1965 and released as a single in February 1966. It reached number 2 on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and Britain's Record Retailer chart (subsequently the UK Singles Chart), while topping the charts compiled by Cash Box and NME.

 The Rolling Stones - 19th Nervous Breakdown (Official Lyric Video) - YouTube

Fortunately, there are easier ways to deal with stress, which Simon and Garfunkel pointed out to us in one of their songs.

Simon & Garfunkel - Feelin' Groovy (from The Concert in Central Park) - YouTube

 

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