Discussion on Jenny Collins

Hello all, this is my first post here on the board, so here goes...

I have been reading the episode summaries, and I would like to start a discussion on the character of "Crazy" Jenny Collins.

First, let's make the hypothetical assumption that Jenny is a real person, same as you or I. Now, let's also assume that she presents the same general pattern of behaviors she exhibits in episodes 716 and 717. For a recap, those include:

-- sneaking around, trying at all costs to avoid being seen by those she does not wish to reveal herself to
-- a general inability to distinguish certain inanimate objects from living things (her caring for Nora's doll as if it were a living child)
-- homicidal tendencies (trying to burn Judith alive in bed; threatening to stab Judith with the scissors)
-- rapidly cycling shifts in personality (going from preparing to murder Judith to crooning a lullaby to her "babies" nearly instantaneously)
-- making statements which, to you or I, would seem quite nonsensical (see her "What color is a lie?" speech)

Furthermore, let's assume that she, through whatever series of events, found herself in a legitimate mental institution.

My question is, what would most likely end up being Jenny's diagnosis?

Welcome, BryceLozier!  It's wonderful to see you posting.

Based on those symptoms alone-- Jenny's paranoia, the auditory hallucination of her babies' cries, and the anger and delusions, serious violence, unpredictability and her disordered thinking-- I just can't decide.  Maybe paranoid schizophrenia?

But if I'm allowed to factor in that her symptoms seem to have shown up as a direct result of the trauma of her husband running off with his SIL and of finding herself isolated and pregnant in that household (is there anyone that would come out of that without some serious depression?), then I'm going to guess at a diagnosis of psychosis with paranoia.

Some fans have speculated that Jenny suffered from postpartum psychosis, but I'm not sure it fits with what we know.

It would be interesting to speculate how Jenny would have been diagnosed and "treated" if she had been sent to what were then called "state hospitals" (the previous term, "lunatic asylum" had fallen out of grace).  By the 1890's the medical establishment, often working with the social reform movement, was radically altering its views and approach to the mentally ill.  A generation-or-two before, while there were already some forms of "institutionalization," most families dealt with members who had a psychoses the same way the Collinses did - lock them up somewhere in one's home and keep them out of sight and mind of everyone.

Gerard

I don't find it pleasant to contemplate the inner workings of psychiatric institutions past or present.

I always wondered if Jenny's madness was brought on by an old gypsy curse - someone in the caravan cursed Jenny with madness, for marrying outside of her own kind.

i think it works much better for the story that Jenny's madness is brought on by Quentin's betrayal and abandonment, and his family's cruelty to her. That all the tragedy that comes upon the family, thry Quentin's curse is ultimately brought on by Quentin and his family's actions is much more appropriate than any outside force.
Besides, there was no need for the gypsies to curse Jenny, she brought her destruction upon herself thru her unwise choice in husbands and her inability to cope when things went wrong.

Yes, I think the whole idea was that Quentin and his rich, "superior" family was responsible for Jenny's invalidation, and madness.

I don't think it is either "one  thing or the other."  Jenny probably was always a fragile person, someone who didn't fit in because she couldn't.  Eventually something (and methinks that was probably everything that happened to her vis-a-vis Quentin) pushed her a little hard.  And everything fell down.

Schizophrenia would by my guess.

I think the real root of Jenny's condition goes back to her lonely, traumatic childhood living in desperate, discriminatory squallor among her people.  The events at Collinwood were merely what pushed her over--while with a stronger foundation in her early life, she would have been able to handle what happened. 

Some people in very bad circumstances will cling to the idea of that one big thing coming along to save them, after which their lives will be happy, and often that thing is expected to be love.   It's seen as a one-time thing, never to come again.  You miss grabbing the brass ring, and you're doomed.   

Then they're not prepared for that one chance to go wrong, especially if it's love.   Romantic fantasy is what life is all about to a lot of people, it's the goal, it's the only thing that can save you from all the unhappiness.   If the fantasy comes true, then turns out to be utterly hollow, then the rug's pulled out from under you.   

I think few of any of us are as invulnerable to trauma or even madness as we like to think.    Unchallenged people assume they're doing well in life because they can handle life better than those sad people who break down...  but we're all vulnerable, flawed, and susceptible to breakdown if enough is taken away from us.

I also think she was fragile to begin with and married her 'white knight in shining armor' only to find her hero is only a fantasy after all was said and done. That along with the birth of her twins pushed her over the edge.  Her character reminds me of the derranged wife in Jane Eyre, locked away with no professional care.

I don't know if it was so much the birth of the twins, but they were taken away from her.  I think she felt as though she had abandoned them.

I'm sure having the twins took away made things worse, but I always thought they were taken away from her because of her mental problems, which is why she was locked up in the first place.
And there was the pressure on Jenny hiding her heritage as a gypsy. That alone wouldn't have driven her mad, but that added to Quentin's betrayal and abandonment, the cruelty of the Collins family, and her own already fragile unstable personality, and Jenny went off the deep end.