Coherence/incoherence: A gestalt approach to the representation of ‘mental disorders’ using literary genres

Abstract

ii Abstract This creative writing PhD explores mental health in the light of literary genres and comprises a novel, The Conspiracy Factory, and critical reflection. Set in a psychiatric facility, the novel is told in, through and between different genres, with ‘schizophrenia’ mapped onto the cognitive estrangement of science fiction, ‘PTSD’ onto psychological horror, and ‘paranoia’ onto a conspiracy thriller. What it is like to experience each ‘disorder’ is communicated through familiarity with these genres. The research responds to current theories of consciousness, which state that we all hallucinate (Seth, 2022) and the brain fills in gaps to form wholes even – especially – if wrong. Since the brain uses models (Frith, 2007), it makes sense to use models. Genres supply such models and the emphasis is on genres as gestalts. For the research asks how successfully coherence, as opposed to incoherence, can be used to represent or communicate the experience of ‘mental disorders’. Whereas the modernists and many writers since have used incoherence to represent mental health conditions, with surface difficulty gesturing at that experience, it investigates whether taking the opposite course, writing in terms of the whole or gestalt, provides a more ‘immersive’ approach. Accordingly, it uses plot shape and literary genres, along with associated tropes, techniques and theory, including Suvin (1979) and Todorov (1977), mapped to clusters of symptoms, to convey the experience of ‘mental disorders’. Drawing on first-hand accounts, it emphasises different genres in relation to different ‘disorders’ with the intention being to give an authentic representation of ‘mental illness’ and understand the relationship between literature, genre and mental health. By combining creative and critical methods, the research also asks how writing about ‘mental disorders’ through distinct genres illuminates ‘mental illness’, and considers what the comparison reveals about the nature of genre(s).