Valerie Solanas: The Defiant Life of the Woman Who Wrote SCUM

by Breanne Fahs

  MADNESS

  Of Mental Hospitals and Men

  1968–1974

  Madness deals not so much with truth and the world, as with man and whatever truth about himself he is able to perceive. . . . It plays on the surface of things and in the glitter of daylight, over all the workings of appearances, over the ambiguity of reality and illusion, over all that indeterminate web, ever rewoven and broken, which both unites and separates truth and appearance. It hides and manifests, it utters truth and falsehood, it is light and shadow. It shimmers, a central and indulgent figure . . .

  —Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization

  IF VALERIE SIGNALS A LINK BETWEEN TRUTH AND MADNESS, between the world of reason and that of unreason, the events that followed her arrest in Times Square on June 3, 1968 for the shooting of Andy Warhol suggest that few could see her as a mechanism for uniting these spheres. Valerie’s truth was lost to the world of mental health diagnoses, treatment, imprisonment, abuse, and ultimately, descent into the intensifying paralysis of paranoia and self-destruction. As the “bag lady of feminism,” Valerie entered a world where the potentially brilliant capacities of her mind were toppled by the science of unreason.1

  THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK VERSUS “VALARIE” SOLANAS

  A grand jury of the County of New York was convened; Valerie faced two counts of attempted murder—for Andy Warhol and Mario Amaya—as well as one count of first-degree assault, for Fred Hughes, one count of second-degree assault, again for Fred Hughes, and, finally, one count of possessing a weapon. The first count read, somewhat clumsily, “The defendant, in the County of New York, on or about June 3, 1968, with intent to cause the death of Andy Warhol attempted to cause the death of Andy Warhol by shooting him with a pistol.” In an appendix to the document containing the indictments, Florynce Kennedy filed the following description of Valerie: “The prisoner’s name is Valerie Solanis [sic]. (As an actress and author she is known as Valerie Solaris [sic]). She is a well-educated person holding a bachelor’s degree and some credits towards a master’s degree. She is a strong advocate of women’s rights and conveys this message in her writings.”2

  On June 4, 1968, Valerie appeared for arraignment before Judge David Getzoff (an appropriate name indeed), who ordered her committed to the New York City Department of Hospitals for psychiatric observation. According to documents filed by Flo, no such examination took place. “Said order was then vacated by Judge Getzoff and Miss Solanis was remanded to the Women’s House of Detention, where she was again searched and internally examined.” (“Internal examinations” typically meant that women stripped naked and endured prodding and “searching” in their genitals, often under the guise that guards were looking for drugs.) Flo added that Valerie was returned to the court on June 5. She was not given representation by counsel or allowed the chance to seek it at either appearance. Valerie had rejected attempts to force her to accept legal aid from the state for both appearances, believing that she was the only person who could represent herself. (In an interview decades later, Roderick Lankler, the assistant district attorney at the time, remembered Valerie as a unique case, remarking, “She seemed a victim of her relationship with [Andy].”)3

  On the morning of June 5, Valerie received a “brief and cursory” psychological evaluation from Dr. Grants, a court psychiatrist. Flo wrote of this evaluation, “Dr. Grants was not a fair and impartial observer of Miss Solanas’s mental condition and cannot fully advise the court thereof.” That same day, the judge reinstated the decision to commit Valerie, and she was assigned to Elmhurst Hospital.

  ELMHURST HOSPITAL, QUEENS, NEW YORK

  “She was, as they put it, “one of the floating people.”

  Sometimes people would ask: “Where do you come from?”

  “The river,” she replied.

  “Where do you live?”

  “Nowhere.”

  “Who are you?”

  “No one.”

  —Judy Michaelson, “Valerie: The Trouble Was Men”

  Swiftly declared mentally unstable and potentially unable to stand trial because of this condition, the courts transported Valerie on June 5, 1968, to the prison ward of Elmhurst Hospital in the borough of Queens. The typical procedure for such cases involved a transfer to the hospital for ninety days; within that period, a determination would be made whether to discharge the person, continue to treat him or her in general population at Elmhurst, or transfer the person to a section of the hospital with security. Valerie needed to be fully evaluated to determine whether she was competent to stand trial.4 Nearly everyone admitted under circumstances similar to Valerie’s would have been required to undergo extensive psychological testing. Accordingly, she underwent such testing by the chief psychologist, Ruth Cooper, who issued a detailed report on June 13, diagnosing Valerie with “a Schizophrenic Reaction, paranoid type with marked depression and potential for acting out.”5

  Coming from a relatively sympathetic psychologist, Dr. Cooper’s observations and insights about Valerie reveal both the highly psychoanalytic framework of the late 1960s psychological diagnostic world, rife with sexist assumptions, along with a certain degree of care and empathy toward Valerie. Dr. Cooper’s report described Valerie as increasingly eager during each of the three testing sessions, “displaying great interest and willingness to cooperate in whatever tasks were presented.” Though Valerie acknowledged a superficial familiarity with the psychological tests and procedures—she had studied psychology in college—she did not have any real knowledge of the procedures used during the testing. Dr. Cooper described her as compliant and cooperative, highly motivated to give a frank and open picture of herself during the testing, and eager to do well on the testing: “Indeed, Miss Solanas was so ready to ‘tell all,’ that often the examiner was forced to intercede to cut off the excess of productivity. Like an eager child, Miss Solanas asked what the newspapers were now writing about her though she angrily accused them of attributing false statements to her and insisted that ‘the press belongs to the rich people and what will happen to me is what the rich people want to happen.’”

  Dr. Cooper administered a full battery of tests, including the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale for Adults (now the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale), which required Valerie to complete subtests to assess her verbal and performance intelligence (applied logic, spatial skills, and so forth). This test used a standardized scoring method; scores of 100 indicated average intelligence, 75–80 indicated borderline/low intelligence, and 120 and above signaled above-average/high intelligence. Approximately 95 percent of the population scores between 70 and 130 on IQ tests, with only 2.5 percent scoring higher than 130.

  Valerie scored 132 in verbal IQ, 125 in performance IQ, with a full-scale IQ of 131; placing her in the 98th percentile of intellectual functioning. In other words, Valerie functioned in the “very superior” category, far above average compared with most of her peers and in the top 2 percent overall. Further, because she had such similar verbal and performance IQ scores—that is, there were no significant discrepancies between different areas of her intelligence—she scored as highly intelligent across all tasks and skills. Dr. Cooper noted that “except for two very minor breaks, there was no clear-cut evidence of gross pathology or of a thinking disorder in this highly structured instrument. The breaks which did occur were in relation to questions involving social and legal mores and reflected her rebellion against existing society.”

  Valerie also participated in two projective tests: the Rorschach inkblot test and the Thematic Apperception Test, both of which assess unconscious yearnings, perceptions, and the extent of any psychological disturbance. In the Rorschach—an instrument still used in inpatient hospital and other settings to assess perceptions and thought disorders—people identify patterns and shapes based on what they see within a series of ambiguous images made from inkblots. This test looks for disturbances in perceptual functioning and overall well-being through scoring both the content of t
he responses (“I see two women playing the drums”) and the specific language of how individuals talk about the images they perceive (“Maybe it’s a he-she figure”). The Rorschach test most reliably measures disturbances in perceptual functioning and, particularly during the late 1960s, was widely used to diagnose schizophrenia (and in some hospitals, it still is used for this purpose). The Thematic Apperception Test asks individuals to create stories with a beginning, middle, and end about a series of drawings that show people engaging in various tasks. By closely examining individuals’ projections onto the drawings, particularly affect about the drawings, psychologists can learn about family histories, unconscious processes, and longings or urges.6

  Dr. Cooper reported Valerie’s performance on the projective tests. “While the form level of her response is often excellent, the quality of the content and her elaborations take on a psychotic flavor. She thought of men as ‘pigs’ whom she anthropomorphizes into exploiters and despoilers of women. Not only do they ‘brutalize’ women, but they also annihilate other men. As she sees them, men have no redeeming qualities.” Valerie exercised extreme caution in her descriptions of women, for even though women engaged in constructive and cooperative activities together, and could clearly love each other, women generally needed to be “tested” before they could earn Valerie’s trust.

  When asked to make projective drawings of whatever she felt at the time, she constructed a small microcosm of the gender-nonconforming world created in Up Your Ass, populated by highly masculine women who still loved being women. Dr. Cooper wrote that Valerie created “a female who, except for her flowing hair, is an extremely phallic, aggressive creature—far more masculine than the male. Though she masculinizes the female, she verbalizes that it is more desirable to be a female than a male. Even men, according to Miss Solanas’s associations to her drawings, prefer the feminine role. Though they pretend to value masculinity, their private fantasies revolve around being female.” Dr. Cooper speculated that Valerie’s drawings illustrated her confusion about her own sexual identity and her “inability to achieve any resolution to this conflict.” Situating this as a sign of Valerie’s block about admitting any actual sexual wishes, Dr. Cooper believed that Valerie’s overreliance on “all forms of perverse sexual activity” served to deny her actual sexual wishes.

  As a final test, Dr. Cooper administered the Bender-Gestalt test, in which individuals are asked to replicate drawings shown to them on different cards. Designed to measure developmental and neurological disorders, the test can also discern perfectionism. Dr. Cooper assessed Valerie’s performance on this test and surmised that Valerie had severe conflict about and alternated between perfectionism and impulsivity: “Miss Solanas wants desperately to create a perfect product and her consequent overconcern with exquisite detail gives rise to stilted, overconcrete, fragmented, larger-than-life reproductions. Thus, while her initial perceptions may be correct, she so magnifies them that their integrity is ultimately undermined.”

  Addressing the global picture of Valerie’s psychological health, Dr. Cooper suggested that Valerie showed a consistent preoccupation with violence. “In markedly paranoid fashion she sees society, and particularly men, as aligned against her.” She painted Valerie as torn between external toughness and inner vulnerability. “Though she makes strenuous efforts to present herself as a hard, tough, cynical misanthrope, Miss Solanas is actually a very frightened and depressed child. Her brittle defenses, which range from obsessive-compulsive perfectionism to paranoid projection, do not really serve to contain her overwhelming anxiety.” Noting that Valerie’s defenses gave way readily when confronted with inescapable facts, Dr. Cooper believed that Valerie coped through either impulsive acting out or depression. When Dr. Cooper described Valerie’s anxiety and depression to her, “there was a marked startled reaction on Miss Solanas’ part. She made a feeble effort to deny the observation but was clearly very close to tears.”

  When questioned about her childhood (and it should be remembered that in the late 1960s, mother blaming was notoriously common in psychology and psychiatry) Valerie strongly stressed that she had had an idyllic childhood, though “she plaintively conceded that her mother had always been busy elsewhere,—that there had never been time for Valerie.” Valerie had concluded that her mother had more interest in men than in her daughter and consequently, “she holds men responsible for the emotional deprivation and rejection she experienced.” Dr. Cooper added, “While she has consciously devoted much of her energy to proving what ‘pigs’ and ‘exploiters’ men were, her unconscious strivings have been to be male and thus, perhaps, to win her mother’s love.” Dr. Cooper situated Valerie’s psychological troubles as squarely resulting from her mother’s rejection and her longing to seek revenge on the men who took her mother away from her. Notably, the report never mentioned Valerie’s relationship with her father and apparently did not include any mention of sexual abuse ever having occurred.

  At the conclusion of her report, Dr. Cooper characterized Valerie as “essentially an emotional and psychological infant who has not yet resolved the critical question of her own identity.” She portrayed Valerie as following a predictable process in which, in order to manage her obsessive-compulsive need for perfection, she became anxious and depressed and eventually delusional in her thinking, with “rage of such proportions that acting-out destructively becomes the only avenue for discharge. . . . Her test protocol indicates that at the present time, Miss Solanas does, indeed, see no other way to cope with her inner turmoil than to discharge it through action.”

  Decades later, in an interview conducted by Mary Harron and her research team for her film I Shot Andy Warhol, Dr. Cooper admitted that “Valerie is a surprisingly vivid memory” and that she “remembered her with sympathy as an ‘engaging young woman—challenging and stimulating,’ with a sense of humor, who was obsessed with gender and would continuously turn the conversation back to the inferiority of the male.”7

  Shortly after Dr. Cooper completed her psychological evaluation, Valerie received another evaluation, from two psychiatrists, Arthur Sternberg and Mannuccio Mannucci, who issued their report on June 26; the diagnosis was “Schizophrenia, Chronic, Paranoid type.” These doctors noted that Valerie displayed superior intellectual functioning along with excellent memory, though she displayed agitation that masked underlying depression. Not surprisingly, Valerie seemed to respond more negatively to male evaluators than to Dr. Cooper. Under the belief that her judgment and insight were markedly impaired, the report described her as out of control during the evaluation: “Her language was profuse with vulgarities of every description, and she spoke in a rapid, high-pressured way. Her thoughts were coherent and logical until she became involved with descriptions of her philosophy. She reiterated her views that men are no longer necessary and should be subjugated into a feminist society. She added that extermination of males is justified when necessary, and that she would be willing to carry out this deed if she ever had to.” Valerie repeatedly reiterated during the testing that she felt justified in her actions “both in the past and in the future.”8

  Drs. Sternberg and Mannucci gathered an extensive childhood history from Valerie, noting that she described herself as a “hell raiser” and that she and her friends would often shoplift and commit other petty thefts. When asked about her whereabouts for the past five years, Valerie related that she had traveled through various parts of the country and had lived with several men, none of whom she liked. She expressed particularly hostile sentiments toward Andy Warhol and explained that he had too much control over her life and had stolen her literary work and that he and his crowd had been sending information to the newspapers with the intent of ruining her reputation. She also believed that Andy had biased her psychiatric testing results and had frequently asked the evaluators if they could say she was “crazy” and should be locked up. Interestingly, though the report concluded with the diagnosis of schizophrenia, it states that “there is no evidence of h
allucinations, depersonalization, or derealization.” (These three facets of schizophrenia still inform the diagnosis today; Valerie apparently never experienced frank hallucinations or an overwhelming sense of unreality in her identity or her environment.) The psychiatrists concluded that Valerie had been deteriorating for some time and that, because of her impulsivity and antisocial behavior, she constituted a serious risk of being homicidal, could not stand trial because of mental illness, and should be transferred to a state psychiatric health facility.

  While in Elmhurst Hospital, Valerie refused to allow Maurice Girodias’s lawyer, Don Engel, to represent her, insisting on having Flo’s legal counsel. Flo filed a petition on June 7 to officially declare herself Valerie’s attorney and on June 11 she argued in a formal appeal, “Valerie Solanis [sic] has been confined against her will at Elmhurst General Hospital from June 5, 1968 to the present. Since she is a newsworthy personality she has been the subject of supposed news articles. These articles (see exhibits marked P-Q) are extremely prejudiced, but because Miss Solanis [sic] is not allowed to see copies of her press coverage at Elmhurst General Hospital, she is unable to refute the trial and conviction which the press has already conducted.”9