I found something which made me more empathetic/sympathetic in regards to the "mammy" issue so I decided to make this post:
Darwin's nervousness of being left alone and his relationship with his wife
In regards to his husband/wife relationship giving insight to Darwin's psyche Peter Brent in his "Darwin: A Man of Enlarged Curiosity" writes of Darwin's relationship with his wife: "Their ties to each other were linked to childhood and the very beginnings of memory. They had a common history, a joint tradition. It is hard to think their relationship a passionate one, but it was happy, and the happiness had deep roots. (p. 316)"
On the other hand, Bradbury states according Peter Brent's biography that in Darwin and Emma's letters, Emma was "always the mother, never the child, Darwin always the child, never the father." In later years Darwin was to give his wife the nickname "mammy" and here is a sample of what Peter Brent referred to from Darwin's letters according to Bradbury:
"My dearest old Mammy ... Without you, when sick I feel most desolate .. Oh Mammy, I do long to be with you and under your protection for then I feel safe."
Bradbury cites Brent as stating that it is difficult to see that that this is a thirty-nine year old man writing to his wife and not a young child writing to his mother. Obviously, Brent's comments are subjective and each person will have to read Darwin's letters for themselves and decide whether "Emma was always the mother, never the child, Darwin always the child, never the father" in their correspondence. Barloon and Noyes interpret Darwin's behavior as a fear of being alone associated with his panic disorder. According to Barloon and Noyes, Darwin expressed to Dr. Chapman "nervousness when Emma leaves me".
Darwin's nervousness of being left alone and his relationship with his wife
In regards to his husband/wife relationship giving insight to Darwin's psyche Peter Brent in his "Darwin: A Man of Enlarged Curiosity" writes of Darwin's relationship with his wife: "Their ties to each other were linked to childhood and the very beginnings of memory. They had a common history, a joint tradition. It is hard to think their relationship a passionate one, but it was happy, and the happiness had deep roots. (p. 316)"
On the other hand, Bradbury states according Peter Brent's biography that in Darwin and Emma's letters, Emma was "always the mother, never the child, Darwin always the child, never the father." In later years Darwin was to give his wife the nickname "mammy" and here is a sample of what Peter Brent referred to from Darwin's letters according to Bradbury:
"My dearest old Mammy ... Without you, when sick I feel most desolate .. Oh Mammy, I do long to be with you and under your protection for then I feel safe."
Bradbury cites Brent as stating that it is difficult to see that that this is a thirty-nine year old man writing to his wife and not a young child writing to his mother. Obviously, Brent's comments are subjective and each person will have to read Darwin's letters for themselves and decide whether "Emma was always the mother, never the child, Darwin always the child, never the father" in their correspondence. Barloon and Noyes interpret Darwin's behavior as a fear of being alone associated with his panic disorder. According to Barloon and Noyes, Darwin expressed to Dr. Chapman "nervousness when Emma leaves me".
