Date of Award
2019
First Advisor
Anne O'Dwyer
Second Advisor
Asma Abbas
Third Advisor
Marilyn Charles
Abstract
The aim of this thesis is to analyse and reflect upon the mink between creativity and mental illness. I shall be using four literary texts as points of inquiring--an inquiry which remains exploratory rather than definitive. The first text is a memoir which shows the connection from a psychiatrist’s point of view, drawing from her own experience as well as observations of others. Next, I examine a fictionalized autobiographical text that comments directly on the relation between schizophrenia and creative expression. My third section deals with trauma through an interplay of two texts, one which defines and one which divulges. The final text returns to themes discussed throughout the work, blurring the lines between both fiction and memoir and creativity and madness. I hope that this work serves to invite readers into an intimate understanding of with what it means to be mad and how that insanity lends itself to the exploration of the selected texts.
Recommended Citation
Meyer, Wynona, "Reading Like an Analyst: Creativity and the Unstable Mind" (2019). Senior Theses. 1357.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/sr-theses/1357
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