From: David Parker (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Date: Fri Feb 12 1999 - 06:36:38 PST
My dear Miss Mytton, You speak with some authority on the subject of emotions, but I am far from convinced you do so with entire accuracy. My generation is often accused by yours of insufficiently expressing its emotions. I venture to suggest, howeve, that mine enjoyed an emotional life every bit as rich as yours does. Consider a favourite among my creatures, Esther Summerson in "Bleak House." Hard experience has accustomed her to self-effacement, reticence, self-denial, but I try to show that her loving heart is as large and generous as that beating in any breast. I like to think I succeeded. Perhaps my stoicism harmed me, but I do not think it blunted my emotions. Faithfully yours, Charles Dickens ____________________________________________________________________________ _________ -----Original Message----- From: Jill Mytton <mytton@xena.uel.ac.uk> To: cdickens@rmplc.co.uk <cdickens@rmplc.co.uk> Date: 11 February 1999 15:15 Subject: Re: trauma > >Dear Mr Dickens >Thank you for your prompt reply - I will have to peruse Dombey and >Son again for it is some time since I last read your excellent books, >I am fortunate to have them all. > >I wonder though how stoicism affected your ability to write - >stoicism I would imagine is a form of what we would now call >'avoidance' and this tends to blunt the emotions. > >I have currently 'treated' a man who suffered from an incident where >a 'dumper truck' (forgive my 20th century phrases) toppled over and >landed on the top of his car (this is a motorised carriage). He >suffered from many symptoms similar to your own but I am happy to >report that he is now free of them. What a pity such treatment was >not available in your day. > >Faithfully yours >Jill Mytton > > > >> My dear Miss Mitton, >> >> Alas, in the middle of the nineteenth century, we tended not to think of >> writing as therapy. Never, in my fiction, did I write of experiences such >> as mine at Staplehurst except, curiously, in "Dombey and Son," before the >> accident happened. My only rememdy was stoicism. >> >> >> Faithfully yours, >> >> >> Charles Dickens >> ____________________________________________________________________________ >> _________ >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Jill Mytton <mytton@whstaff1.uel.ac.uk> >> To: David Parker <cdickens@rmplc.co.uk> >> Date: 10 February 1999 17:42 >> Subject: Re: trauma >> >> >> Dear Mr Dickens >> Thank you so much for your informative reply. Since receiving it I >> regret to say that I have been much inflicted with influenza and am >> only now able to address a considerable pile of mail. >> >> I was very interested in your answer - it certainly sounds to me as >> if you did indeed suffer from what is now called Post Traumatic >> Stress Disorder. Did you, may I ask, use your considerable writing >> skills to help you resolve your anxiety? Perhaps you included the >> story in one of your wonderful books? I believe I have read somewhere >> that you certainly referred to it in letters - but I thought that >> maybe retelling the event in a story might have helped you come to >> terms with this very unpleasant incident. >> >> Faithfully yours >> >> Jill Mytton >> >> >> >> >> From: David Parker <cdickens@rmplc.co.uk> >> > To: mytton <mytton@uel.ac.uk> >> > Subject: Re: trauma >> > Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 15:26:26 -0000 >> >> > My dear Miss Mytton, >> > >> > In June 1865, I was in the train involved in a serious accident at >> > Staplehurst in Kent. Ten people were killed, about fifty injured. >> > For months afterwards I was overcome from time to time by anxiety, >> > sometimes almost amounting to panic, especially when travelling at >> > speed, if only in my own phaeton. I cannot say whether this was >> > what you call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. >> > >> > >> > Faithfully yours, >> > >> > >> > Charles Dickens >> > ______________________________________________________ >> > >> > -----Original Message----- >> > From: Jill Mytton <mytton@xena.uel.ac.uk> >> > To: cdickens@rmplc.co.uk <cdickens@rmplc.co.uk> >> > Date: 11 December 1998 08:37 >> > Subject: trauma >> > >> > >> > > >> > >Dear Mr Dickens >> > >Rumour has it that you suffered from some trauma in your life that gave >> you >> > symptoms >> > >similar to those classified as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder today. >> > >Can you confirm this please - I am contributing to a text book on trauma >> > and my chapter is >> > >concerned with historical references to trauma. >> > > >> > >I am grateful to you for your consideration >> > >Yours truly >> > > >> > >Jill Mytton >> > >University of East London >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > >> Jill Mytton, MSc., C.Psychol., >> Counselling Psychologist, >> University of East London, >> Romford >> London E15 4LZ >> Phone: 0181 590 7000 ext.4456 >> E-mail: E.J.Mytton@uel.ac.uk >> >> >> >> > >