Overcoming BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER
Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938) & borderline personality disorder.
Thomas Wolfe was a writer whose first work was published in 1929 and who
died less than ten years later, before he was forty. In that brief decade, he was a literary sensation, hailed by the greatest novelists of his time. He was enormously productive and driven. And he was painfully unhappy.
Wolfe was described as nervous, surly, suspicious, given to brooding, to drinking, to violent outbursts,
and sometimes even to fears that he was going mad. He was rude and dislikable.
He said of himself that he was afraid of people and that he sometimes concealed
his fear by being arrogant and by sneering magnificently.
It was hard for him to begin writing on any particular day, but once he began it
was harder still for him to stop. The words would simply pour out of him. He
would sleep late, gulp down cup after cup of black coffee, smoke innumerable cigarettes,
pace up and down-and write endlessly. He would scrawl down the words
on sheet after sheet of yellow paper, so hastily and hugely that the pages often
contained only twenty words apiece, and those in abbreviated scrawl. At night, he
would prowl the streets, drinking heavily, or spending hours in a phone booth,
calling friends, and accusing them of having betrayed him. The next day, overcome
with remorse, he would call again and apologize.
For all his writing, he had difficulty putting together a second book after Look
Homeward Angel. Although he had written a million words, ten times that of an
average novel, it still was not a book. He was fortunate to have as his editor Maxwell
Perkins, who had discovered his talent and who cared to nurture it. Wolfe
wrote: "I was sustained by one piece of inestimable good fortune. I had for a friend
a man of immense wisdom and a gentle but unyielding fortitude. I think that if! was
not destroyed at this time by the sense of hopelessness ... it was largely because
of ... Perkins.... I did not give in because he would not let me give in."
Perkins recognized that Wolfe was a driven man, and feared that he would suffer
either a psychological or physical breakdown, or both. He proposed to Wolfe that,
having written a million words, his work was finished: it only remained for both of
them to sit down and make a book out of his effort.
That collaboration was difficult. A million words do not automatically make a
book. Wolfe was reluctant to cut. Most of the editing, therefore, fell to Perkins.
And as Perkins slowly made a book out of Wolfe's words, Wolfe's resentment of
Perkins increased. The work was not perfect, Wolfe felt. And it upset him to bring
forth a book that did not meet his standards.
Until the book was published, Wolfe believed it would be a colossal failure. The
Reviews were magnificent, however. But although Wolfe was at first heartened by
the reviews, he gradually began to feel again that the book was less than perfect, a
matter for which he held Perkins responsible. His relationship with Perkins deteriorated.
He became suspicious, even paranoid. Yet, apart from Perkins, he had no close friends.
He became increasingly unpredictable, yielding easily to incensed
anger, unable to control it. Ultimately, he broke with Perkins. Rosenthal (1979)
has suggested that Wolfe's emotional liability, his inability to control his anger,
the difficulties he had in being alone, his many self-damaging acts, as well as his
identity problems point to the diagnosis of a borderline personality disorder. At
the. same time, Wolfe also had personality features that were consistent with the
schizotypal personality disorder, especially his ideas of reference that made him so
suspicious and paranoid.
Thomas Wolfe was a writer whose first work was published in 1929 and who
died less than ten years later, before he was forty. In that brief decade, he was a literary sensation, hailed by the greatest novelists of his time. He was enormously productive and driven. And he was painfully unhappy.
Wolfe was described as nervous, surly, suspicious, given to brooding, to drinking, to violent outbursts,
and sometimes even to fears that he was going mad. He was rude and dislikable.
He said of himself that he was afraid of people and that he sometimes concealed
his fear by being arrogant and by sneering magnificently.
It was hard for him to begin writing on any particular day, but once he began it
was harder still for him to stop. The words would simply pour out of him. He
would sleep late, gulp down cup after cup of black coffee, smoke innumerable cigarettes,
pace up and down-and write endlessly. He would scrawl down the words
on sheet after sheet of yellow paper, so hastily and hugely that the pages often
contained only twenty words apiece, and those in abbreviated scrawl. At night, he
would prowl the streets, drinking heavily, or spending hours in a phone booth,
calling friends, and accusing them of having betrayed him. The next day, overcome
with remorse, he would call again and apologize.
For all his writing, he had difficulty putting together a second book after Look
Homeward Angel. Although he had written a million words, ten times that of an
average novel, it still was not a book. He was fortunate to have as his editor Maxwell
Perkins, who had discovered his talent and who cared to nurture it. Wolfe
wrote: "I was sustained by one piece of inestimable good fortune. I had for a friend
a man of immense wisdom and a gentle but unyielding fortitude. I think that if! was
not destroyed at this time by the sense of hopelessness ... it was largely because
of ... Perkins.... I did not give in because he would not let me give in."
Perkins recognized that Wolfe was a driven man, and feared that he would suffer
either a psychological or physical breakdown, or both. He proposed to Wolfe that,
having written a million words, his work was finished: it only remained for both of
them to sit down and make a book out of his effort.
That collaboration was difficult. A million words do not automatically make a
book. Wolfe was reluctant to cut. Most of the editing, therefore, fell to Perkins.
And as Perkins slowly made a book out of Wolfe's words, Wolfe's resentment of
Perkins increased. The work was not perfect, Wolfe felt. And it upset him to bring
forth a book that did not meet his standards.
Until the book was published, Wolfe believed it would be a colossal failure. The
Reviews were magnificent, however. But although Wolfe was at first heartened by
the reviews, he gradually began to feel again that the book was less than perfect, a
matter for which he held Perkins responsible. His relationship with Perkins deteriorated.
He became suspicious, even paranoid. Yet, apart from Perkins, he had no close friends.
He became increasingly unpredictable, yielding easily to incensed
anger, unable to control it. Ultimately, he broke with Perkins. Rosenthal (1979)
has suggested that Wolfe's emotional liability, his inability to control his anger,
the difficulties he had in being alone, his many self-damaging acts, as well as his
identity problems point to the diagnosis of a borderline personality disorder. At
the. same time, Wolfe also had personality features that were consistent with the
schizotypal personality disorder, especially his ideas of reference that made him so
suspicious and paranoid.