Metaphors of Mental Illness in Graphic Medicine

Description

This book investigates how graphic medicine enables sufferers of mental illness to visualize the intricacies of their internal mindscape through visual metaphors and reclaim their voice amidst stereotyped and prejudiced assumptions of mental illness as a disease of deviance and violence. In this context, by using Lakoff and Johnson’s conceptual metaphor theory (CMT), this study uncovers the broad spectrum of the mentally ills’ experiences, a relatively undertheorised area in medical humanities. The aim is to demonstrate that the mentally ill are often represented as either grotesquely exaggerated or overly romanticised across diverse media and biomedical discourses. Further, they have been disparaged as emotionally drained and unreasonable individuals, incapable of active social engagements and against the healthy/sane society. The study aims to unsettle the sanity/insanity binary and its related patterns of fixed categories of normal/abnormal, which depersonalise the mentally ill by critically analysing seven graphic narratives on mental illness. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Texts and Contexts Overview of the Book 1 Drawing Illness: History, Theory, and the Development of Graphic Medicine Introduction Early Comics and Healthcare Narratives of Illness and the Birth of Graphic Medicine Preface to Graphic Medicine Graphic Pathographies Are Graphic Pathographies Education Comics? Graphic Medicine as a Critique of Biomedicine From Book Stalls to Classrooms Trends in Graphic Medicine Conclusion 2 Function of Metaphors in Illness Narratives Introduction A Brief Outline of Metaphor Theories Comparison Theory Transference Theory Interaction Theory Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) Metaphors and Contexts Multimodal Metaphors and Illness Depiction Why Metaphors? Conclusion 3 Mental Illness and the Politics of Representation Introduction Defining Mental Illness Mental Health Stigma and Medical Illustrations Conjuring Stereotypes through Media Representations Conclusion Acknowledgement 4 Nobody Memoirs as Counter-Discourse: Bipolar Disorder and Its Metaphors Introduction Personal Stories, Memoirs, and Counter-Discourse Metaphors as Counter-Diagnostic Figurations Deconstructing Stereotypes Conclusion Acknowledgement 5 Visual Metaphors of OCD and Schizophrenia Introduction Perspectives in Context Picturing the Psychicscape through Spatial and Stylistic Metaphors Traversing the Middle Ground through Visual Metaphors Conclusion Acknowledgement 6 Visualising the Fragmented Selves: Conventional and Creative Metaphors of Depression Introduction Conventional and Creative Metaphors of Depression Stylistic Metaphors of Depression Conclusion Acknowledgement Conclusion Index