Autism and Tennessee Williams

[WereBear]

One of my favorite playwrights, and one of the great tragedies of his life was what has long been considered his "mentally ill" sister, Rose. But in 2012, this article indicated that might not be so.

Not Like All the Other Horses: Neurodiversity and the Case of Rose Williams

In this essay, I will revisit Rose’s case and show that if her troubled adolescence took place today, she would likely be diagnosed with the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) Asperger’s syndrome. My purpose here is not to perform a postmortem diagnosis based on anecdotal or literary evidence, but rather to use a different interpretation of these symptoms to demonstrate two important ideas: first, that notions of mental illness are subjective and culturally relative, and second, that certain long-standing assumptions about Rose Williams and her relationship to her brother’s canon should be called into question. Underpinning this examination will be neurodiversity, a relatively new theoretical concept that both informs and is informed by Williams’s conflicted feelings concerning Rose and her mental state, his exploration of those feelings through his plays, and the ways in which those feelings and literary explorations evolved over time.​

 

[wyverary]

I love Tennessee Williams (and have a close local connection to his legacy). I'm not the world's biggest fan of post-mortem psychiatric diagnoses, but this is quite interesting.

 

[Mia]

Quite a compelling case for Rose, after reading the play, critiquing the play many years ago and loving the play as well as the movie. I recognized the 'melancholy' that was echoed in her Mother as well. Rose had a 'club foot' in the play and the movie, a physical example for the public and a relevant metaphor for Tennessee who willed his entire estate toward the care of his sister.

Had assumed that there was some 'dark' secret in her childhood, never alluded to. That caused Tennessee to feel such grief over her life, didn't realize that it may have been because he was not there to stop the lobotomy. Beyond the fact that the mother and father both were depicted as monstrous in their own manner, it appeared that in real life this was not such an exaggeration.

 

[WereBear]

I'm not the world's biggest fan of post-mortem psychiatric diagnoses, but this is quite interesting.

I'm not either, but I think it all depends on the kind of case the diagnoser is making. Like the claim that Abraham Lincoln was gay, but only offered "evidence" based on male friendship norms that were very common at the time. I didn't think that one held any water.

While I was convinced by a doctor who deduced that Stalin didn't just have a fatal stroke, but was murdered with warfarin (a new drug of the time.) He had the knowledge and experience to pick up the "clues" put in the autopsy report by other doctors, who were obviously afraid to come out and say things, but wrote the report in a way that other doctors could understand. This made a lot of sense to me.

I thought this particular essayist made a compelling case for Rose Williams being a person with Autism. It is helped by the fact that Autistics share distinctive behavior patterns that are obvious to those "in the know" yet fly right over the heads of those who are not aware of them. And back in the turn-of-the-century South, absolutely no one would have picked up on those behavior patterns.

However, I still blame the culture which demanded certain things from Rose. And essentially destroyed her when she could not comply.

 

[WereBear]

Also, Tenneeseee Williams was himself considered a mentally ill outsider; as a gay man in the macho culture of the Deep South.