What was Vivian Vance's actual diagnosis?
In an effort to combine some perennial favorite DL topics ... let's speculate on Viv's mental health diagnosis.
All I've ever read is that she was in therapy for many years after a nervous breakdown, that she suffered an attack mid-performance, that she stopped performing and despaired of ever appearing onstage again, and that she eventually recovered. Her personal life, which included four marriages, was also somewhat chaotic.
But I have never heard an actual diagnosis.
Generalized anxiety? Garden-variety depression? A personality disorder? Go-blootistis?
What say you, DL?
by Anonymous | reply 15 | July 28, 2021 8:06 PM
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I wonder if this is addressed in Being the Ricardos
by Anonymous | reply 3 | July 22, 2021 10:08 PM
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Maybe she had PTSD from wearing blue jeans on the subway.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | July 23, 2021 9:40 PM
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Way back then? She was probably diagnosed with "nervous complaints" and prescribed a mustard plaster.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | July 23, 2021 9:51 PM
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She had a penchant for attracting GAY husbands. 'Nuff said.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | July 28, 2021 5:27 PM
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I thought only the last one way gay, r7
by Anonymous | reply 8 | July 28, 2021 5:29 PM
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Highly excitable female. Womanly problems. Hysterical female, highly strung.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | July 28, 2021 5:30 PM
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Agnes de Mille was a cvnt to her during Carousel and eventually had her fired. This was probably difficult for Viv to accept because the role she was playing required very little interaction with de Mille as it’s not a singing or dancing role and other than the opening tableaux only had two short scenes. That may have been the start of her insecurities.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | July 28, 2021 5:38 PM
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Wasn't Valium the go-to drug for desperate housewives back then?
by Anonymous | reply 11 | July 28, 2021 5:46 PM
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Diazepam wasn't patented until 1959, r11. This was in the 1930s-1950s
by Anonymous | reply 12 | July 28, 2021 6:35 PM
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"What was Vivian Vance's actual diagnosis? "
Chronic second-fiddle-ness
by Anonymous | reply 13 | July 28, 2021 7:31 PM
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She was diagnosed with depression and discussed it openly as part of her work to help those suffering with mental health issues. Whether her diagnosis would be different now is anyone's guess.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | July 28, 2021 8:06 PM
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