In The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion contends that magical thinking, the principal motif in her memoir, reinforces that grief is a state of mental illness in which unreasonable, impractical thinking replaces rational and sensible thoughts. Initially, Didion deems grief solely as a greater intensity of typical, everyday sentiments, but later considers grief as an emotional disorder, which becomes one of the central themes. With the death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and illnesses of her daughter, Quintana, faces throughout the memoir, Didion experiences her grieving process by perceiving grief as a state of temporary mental illness through allusions to accounts of psychologists and authors regarding the detrimental results of
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Didion reveals that she read as much as possible about grief to cope with John’s death: “In time of trouble, I had been trained since childhood, read, learn, work it up, go to the literature. Information was control. Given that grief remained the most general of afflictions its literature seemed remarkably spare” (Didion 44). However, she discovers that very few books have written about grief itself as her original intentions had been to drown herself in any accessible literature that would enable her to understand her actions of grief. Additionally, the sparse body of texts hinders her from completely understanding the complexity of her grieving process. For instance, Didion alludes to studies that refer grief as a temporary state of manic depression. She cites Sigmund Freud’s “Mourning and Melancholia:” “The act of grieving… ‘involves grave departures from the normal attitude to life… never occurs to us to regard it as a pathological condition and to refer it to medical treatment’” (qtd in Didion 34). Freud asserts that the act of grieving is a shift from an ordinary behavior in life to a condition that is self-destructive. He also regards any interference with grief as harmful as well as even futile. Similarly, she quotes from the psychologist Melanie Klein, “Mourning and Its Relations to Manic-Depressive States:” “‘The mourner is in fact ill, but because this …show more content…
Through the accounts of the two psychologists, Didion realizes that she needs to be alone to sort out her thoughts for John to return to her. This object is the beginning of her childish thinking as stress and depressions begin to affect her. On several occasions, she admits that she cannot think rationally and that her thoughts are similar to a child’s due to their sporadic nature. As Didion cleans John’s stack of clothes, a sort of duty that she noted to be normal for the bereaved to do after a death, she realizes that she cannot give away John’s shoes: “I stood there for a moment, then realized why: he would need shoes if he was to return” (Didion 37). She assumes that John is still alive and needs his shoes in order to return to her. Moreover, her childish thoughts initiate the beginning of her magical thinking with John’s autopsy. Didion reasons that if the coroners can determine the cause of his death, then “... they might still be able to fix it” (Didion 37). She irrationally believes that the coroners will diagnose the cause of death and John will be able to come back to life. Additionally, the hospital calls Didion if she “would donate [her] husband’s organs” (Didion 38). Didion specifically thinks that the hospital want John’s blue eyes. To Didion,
Didion reveals that she read as much as possible about grief to cope with John’s death: “In time of trouble, I had been trained since childhood, read, learn, work it up, go to the literature. Information was control. Given that grief remained the most general of afflictions its literature seemed remarkably spare” (Didion 44). However, she discovers that very few books have written about grief itself as her original intentions had been to drown herself in any accessible literature that would enable her to understand her actions of grief. Additionally, the sparse body of texts hinders her from completely understanding the complexity of her grieving process. For instance, Didion alludes to studies that refer grief as a temporary state of manic depression. She cites Sigmund Freud’s “Mourning and Melancholia:” “The act of grieving… ‘involves grave departures from the normal attitude to life… never occurs to us to regard it as a pathological condition and to refer it to medical treatment’” (qtd in Didion 34). Freud asserts that the act of grieving is a shift from an ordinary behavior in life to a condition that is self-destructive. He also regards any interference with grief as harmful as well as even futile. Similarly, she quotes from the psychologist Melanie Klein, “Mourning and Its Relations to Manic-Depressive States:” “‘The mourner is in fact ill, but because this …show more content…
Through the accounts of the two psychologists, Didion realizes that she needs to be alone to sort out her thoughts for John to return to her. This object is the beginning of her childish thinking as stress and depressions begin to affect her. On several occasions, she admits that she cannot think rationally and that her thoughts are similar to a child’s due to their sporadic nature. As Didion cleans John’s stack of clothes, a sort of duty that she noted to be normal for the bereaved to do after a death, she realizes that she cannot give away John’s shoes: “I stood there for a moment, then realized why: he would need shoes if he was to return” (Didion 37). She assumes that John is still alive and needs his shoes in order to return to her. Moreover, her childish thoughts initiate the beginning of her magical thinking with John’s autopsy. Didion reasons that if the coroners can determine the cause of his death, then “... they might still be able to fix it” (Didion 37). She irrationally believes that the coroners will diagnose the cause of death and John will be able to come back to life. Additionally, the hospital calls Didion if she “would donate [her] husband’s organs” (Didion 38). Didion specifically thinks that the hospital want John’s blue eyes. To Didion,