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ParadisoKristaMichelle2006 cmr.pdf (4.72 MB)

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Manic-Depression in America: Gendered and Narrative Constructions of Mental Health and Illness

Paradiso, Krista Michelle
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392980305

Abstract Details

2006, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Comparative Studies.
Manic-depression, also known as bipolar disorder, is a psychiatric condition gaining an increasing amount of attention in contemporary American culture. While it is technically classified as a mental illness, putting it in the realm of medical conditions, it is also a culturally influenced concept. This project explores the ways in which narrative constructions of manic depression influence, and are influenced by, cultural understandings of health, illness, personhood, and gender. In this exploration, I utilize a feminist disability studies lens to understand what specific narrative constructions of manic depression currently exist in America, how those constructions are effected by their respective genres, and the cultural assumptions that lie beneath these narratives. I argue that manic-depression and current understandings of gender are constantly, if unconsciously, working to reinforce each other and to reinforce conceptions of “the normal.” I make this argument through examining representative texts from the genres of autobiography, professional texts, and popular sources. Popular sources seek to educate laypeople, and do so with a combination of authority, clarity, and entertainment that grabs a reader’s attention and holds it as the reader is learning. As an example of a popular source about manic-depression, and in order to contemplate the ways common language use constructs manic-depression, I use Candida Fink and Joe Kraynak’s Bipolar Disorder for Dummies. Professional texts speak authoritatively to professions, and because they are written by professionals. Such texts determine (or challenge) official discourse, definitions, or procedures, but must also meet certain expectations of scientific veracity in order to maintain their status as professional. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual is an exemplary professional text, which I explore in terms of its current and historical significance. Autobiographies are a significant source of information about how Americans understand manic-depression because they are presumably written by people who share certain conditions, experiences, and ways of understanding the world. Readers expect autobiographies to be cohesive narratives of self-discovery and growth that leave the reader educated and challenged to think about life in new ways. Kay Redfield Jamison’s autobiography An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness is an autobiography about living with manic-depression. Jamison’s autobiography is of particular interest because she is also a psychologist whose main research area is bipolar disorder, making her a figure who has the ability to simultaneously have two perspectives on manic-depression. Through examining these texts, and relating them to major issues in contemporary critical cultural studies, such as disability studies and queer studies, this project brings out cultural tensions between the ways manic-depression is understood. Additionally, I aim to show the potential of manic-depression to lead to critical thinking about how Americans construct not only gender, health, and illness, but also the very concept of self.
Brenda Jo Brueggermann (Advisor)
Maurice E. Stevens (Committee Member)
Barry Shank (Committee Member)
100 p.
Comparative

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Paradiso, K. M. (2006). Manic-Depression in America: Gendered and Narrative Constructions of Mental Health and Illness [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392980305

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Paradiso, Krista. Manic-Depression in America: Gendered and Narrative Constructions of Mental Health and Illness. 2006. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392980305.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Paradiso, Krista. "Manic-Depression in America: Gendered and Narrative Constructions of Mental Health and Illness." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392980305

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1392980305
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© 2006, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.