What was Mary Todd Lincoln's mental problems?

Answer 1

Her son, Robert, had her committed to an insane asylum, probably because she would go on shopping sprees, buy things she had no use for and run up debts. However, it is doubtful that she was really insane.

Answer 2

Many modern scholars believe she suffered from depression, or perhaps she was what we today would call bi-polar. But some feminist scholars believe her biggest problem was the era in which she lived. She was more educated than many women of her time, yet society back then did not expect or want a married woman to have a career or have opinions that were expressed in public. Mary Todd Lincoln had very strong opinions on a number of issues, but she lived in an era when women were supposed to be wives and mothers and stay in the background. Her struggles with mental health were also compounded by losing her sons, two of whom died very young (one at age three-and-a half, one at age eleven), and a third of whom died when he was only eighteen.

Answer 3

Because she was living with a man who wore a giant hat all the time.

Answer 4

Yes.