Post by imayne on Feb 27, 2003 19:29:25 GMT -5
"Riven Rock" is based on the true story of Katherine and Stanley McCormick, the dream couple that wasn't.
McCormick, youngest son of Cyrus, the reaper king, was a prisoner of his demented mind. (``Sexual hypochondriacal neurasthenia and incipent dementia praecox'' was the diagnosis.)
He was held in near isolation for more than 40 years as a private mental patient in his huge Santa Barbara, Calif., estate, Riven Rock, while his loyal wife waited patiently for his cure.
Now this is the part I would love to see Ms Ryder play.
Katherine Dexter, the first woman graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and wealthy in her own right, watched McCormick crumble on their wedding night in 1904.
A ``modern'' woman, she called on the new science of psychiatry to cure her husband of his violent rages and catatonic collapses, sparing no expense.
McCormick's doctor would permit no women, including Katherine, near him, and she was forced to catch glimpses of her husband at a distance through binoculars. The ban lasted 20 years. McCormick was attended by male nurses only.
Over the years, Katherine threw herself into the suffragette and birth control movements until another doctor finally allowed her to visit her husband in 1927 when they were both 52. But nothing had changed; Stanley eventually attacked her and drove her away.
The prospects for exploring the denial of love, or at least, physical passion (Boyle writes that the marriage was never consummated), on both men and women seem obvious here, particularly so because Boyle can attribute the denial to psychiatry. There's no cure for Stanley, no love for Katherine.
There is an interesting side story that Boyle includes: about the vigorous and often failing pursuit of women by Eddie O'Kane, one of McCormick's nurses. He also uses the opportunity to recount the history of Santa Barbara, where he lives, as California grows more populated.
I think the above is going to make a helluva movie. After having gone through mental illness herself, WR may be ready to take on a role that makes her sit on the other side of the fence. This is material she should identify with closely, what say members other than Charles?
McCormick, youngest son of Cyrus, the reaper king, was a prisoner of his demented mind. (``Sexual hypochondriacal neurasthenia and incipent dementia praecox'' was the diagnosis.)
He was held in near isolation for more than 40 years as a private mental patient in his huge Santa Barbara, Calif., estate, Riven Rock, while his loyal wife waited patiently for his cure.
Now this is the part I would love to see Ms Ryder play.
Katherine Dexter, the first woman graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and wealthy in her own right, watched McCormick crumble on their wedding night in 1904.
A ``modern'' woman, she called on the new science of psychiatry to cure her husband of his violent rages and catatonic collapses, sparing no expense.
McCormick's doctor would permit no women, including Katherine, near him, and she was forced to catch glimpses of her husband at a distance through binoculars. The ban lasted 20 years. McCormick was attended by male nurses only.
Over the years, Katherine threw herself into the suffragette and birth control movements until another doctor finally allowed her to visit her husband in 1927 when they were both 52. But nothing had changed; Stanley eventually attacked her and drove her away.
The prospects for exploring the denial of love, or at least, physical passion (Boyle writes that the marriage was never consummated), on both men and women seem obvious here, particularly so because Boyle can attribute the denial to psychiatry. There's no cure for Stanley, no love for Katherine.
There is an interesting side story that Boyle includes: about the vigorous and often failing pursuit of women by Eddie O'Kane, one of McCormick's nurses. He also uses the opportunity to recount the history of Santa Barbara, where he lives, as California grows more populated.
I think the above is going to make a helluva movie. After having gone through mental illness herself, WR may be ready to take on a role that makes her sit on the other side of the fence. This is material she should identify with closely, what say members other than Charles?