Art and Mental Health Link Love
A digest of this week's things I loved on Substack that I wanted to say a little bit more about ...
Each week, I want to share with you some of the things from other Substack writers that get me thinking. My niche is the relationship between art and mental health, with a focus on trying to understand how various mental health symptoms impact artistic process, productivity, medium, content, self-perception and reception by others. (And I believe that all of us are artists and all face mental health challenges to varying degrees.)
As I share these links, I’ll share the thoughts I personally had related to my niche. Please note that this doesn’t ever mean that it’s what the original author intended … just that I was inspired by their writing, want to give you my own thoughts from my personal lens, and hope that you’ll enjoy checking out their original pieces as much as I do.
HERE FOR SCI-FRIDAY? SCROLL DOWN TOWARDS THE END, AFTER THE SHORT SHARES
Bur First, A Poll
I do a writer’s digest on Wednesdays and a Notes roundup on Saturdays. For both of those, I create subheadings to use as loose categories within the post for organization. I haven’t been doing that here, because this feels different, but I wanted to check with you:
So, from the last week or so then …
Starting with Transmuting the Shadow from of
which talks about how we want to pretend our shadow side doesn’t exist but this does us a disservice and instead we benefit when we allow the shadow its proper time and place to play.
“llow your shadow to create, especially when you find your own unique creative outlet, and it will merge with you and you will no longer be two divided entities sharing one body, but you can unify through the sacred power of creativity and become undivided, become indivisible, which is why it is only when you merge with this darker part of you, and accept it, and repurpose its energy for creation, for your unique purposes, that you will truly become that rare being that is related to the word indivisible: an individual. You will no longer be divided, but will instead transcend the dual and embrace the non-dual.”
I am always interested in art as therapy but I more intensively study the shadow side of how art and mental health are related because this is less discussed and very important.
of in Even Writers Need Scheduled Care
“It’s nearly Autumn, which is a new season, a fresh start, a space to ask what’s working and what’s not working. I hope that you find ways to embed care into your day, through things like breathing, embodiment, cycling in and out of work, and taking care of yourself through the food you eat.
We live in a society that doesn’t value our care, and honestly, doesn’t want it. We resist that by fighting for our care, by scheduling it in, by dedicating ourselves to it. That’s one of the best gifts we can give to ourselves, to our words, and to our audiences.”
The whole article offers a great look at figuring out what boundaries and self care mean for you in your creative practice, how that might change seasonally or periodically and how it’s up to us to figure out what’s right for us.
RELATED: From of in Life Book (15)
“Art may well thrive with more balance than many of us are able to achieve lately: a balance of solitude and community, quiet and noise, thinking and feeling, inspiration and calm.”
RELATED: From of in One of Those Days
“This week the human world has been loud. My routines have been disrupted. My job has been stressful. Unknowns, noise, and people in my space have not pleased my nervous system. Tension built in my body, I struggled with sleep, I struggled to do all the things I’ve learned to do that help. I’ve woken up tired and it’s taken my body a while to settle even in the morning.
In a week like this, I notice how Nature saves me even more than usual. The call of beautiful surprises gets me out the door and gets my body moving on the earth. The trees, the birds, the water, and the sunrise tell my nervous system it’s ok, at least for a moment. The added joy of unexpected birds is icing on top. I am ever so grateful for every one of these days.”
of wrote about the Trauma Spectrum
As introduced by Mate in “The Myth of Normal”
“He suggests that perhaps rather than think about trauma as only dire things, the worst possible imaginable situations, that happen to only some of us—
That is far better to instead think of us all as existing on a trauma spectrum.
The point here is not to rank traumas or to compare, but, rather, to situate the truth and reality that most of us have some traumatic experience(s).
I also think the point in situating trauma as a spectrum is also to honor our own multiple traumas. For those of us who have the one big defining event of trauma, or ongoing traumas through abuse, racism, poverty, living in war-torn countries, etc, we all may have a wealth of experiences that constitute trauma…”
I agree with the points made, particularly around recognizing that trauma is a universal experience which means that we can all have compassion and heal collectively. And if you’ve been reading me for a bit, you know I love the “spectrum” as a framework. That we are all on a mental health spectrum and a creativity spectrum is a foundation of my work.
And yet, I’m finding that framework isn’t quite right either, and I think it has to do with the way that our brains naturally make comparisons in a linear fashion. We know intellectually that being on this side or that side of the trauma spectrum doesn’t make our experience less or more than someone else’s but we tend to see it that way anyway. So it’s a great frame but also a limited one. I’ve been exploring the idea of circles, spirals, and keyboards as potentially better frames for myself.
Is the Depression Spectrum Really More Of a Circle? Or a Spiral? Or a Keyboard?
And this all kind of makes sense if depression is a spectrum that we can all relate to in some way … but it makes even more sense if we think of double depression as very similar to bipolar at a lower octave. If it’s a spectrum, double depression is further to the left than PDD or major depression, since it’s both of those together … but then it’s also similar to bipolar depression. So maybe instead of visualizing this as a linear spectrum, it’s more like a circle, where the ends actually close the circle and are more similar to one another than different.
shared there is one thing people are good at and that is looking at butterflies
that is a meditation on transformation …
“your darkness is not flame. but it is bonfire. and it is not drizzle, but downpour. it is a feast; a miracle of multiple miles of dusk no longer withholding itself from your unfathomable readyness to self-create. come close enough and you may notice that, deep inside, a light has been left on— as if somebody, knowing you’d return, has set the table for you by the fire.
little voices are works of art in constant states of creation that mistakenly think they’re complete. the little voice you are right now is as transient and fleeting as every other little voice you’ve ever been. the only thing identical to them all is that they each had to step into the dark in order to change.
you will, after all, awaken outside of the cocoon one day and forget you were ever anywhere else.”
And an excerpt really doesn’t do it justice so I’d say go read the whole thing. I read it more than once, mulled over. It’s hardly a new concept, the butterfly as metaphor for change, the caterpillar in the cocoon as an understanding of how death is also birth … but there’s a lyricism that makes the understanding of this drop deeper somehow. Or at least it did for me. As someone who has lived with periods of deep darkness, these reminders are touchstones for me.
David Roberts of shared My Childhood Loneliness Haunts Me:
“Sometimes, I can feel lonely at a party surrounded by people, even if I’m in the mix of the conversational buzz and hum, because I can still feel the sadness of being that scared little boy who thinks he doesn’t belong.
They’re unpredictable, these feelings of despondency. They’re usually short-lived, but twice they lasted, not for hours or days, but for many months. Those were awful periods, times I could say I was depressed..”
This is a powerful piece not just discussing what loneliness is and where it comes from but relating it to a novella by Saul Bellow. This way of looking through a character at a universal truth adds to the piece and ironically reminds us that we are not alone. Isn’t it interesting how the most isolating feelings (grief, loneliness) are truly universal feelings? And when we share them through art, that’s why they touch us, because they remove some of that loneliness by creating connection.
RELATED: From of in When Life’s a Struggle:
“Embracing the power of books and reading can be a valuable tool in navigating today's rapidly changing world and helping us through our struggles. During tough times, I find that reading can deliver a wealth of knowledge and diverse perspectives which can help me better understand complex issues, make informed decisions, and adapt to changing circumstances.”
PLEASE HELP ME KEEP THIS WORK GOING
My goal is to find 1000 people who are interested in subscribing to this work at a rate of $100 per year. This shows the world that we as creatives believe artists and writers can and should earn six figures. I practice artistic tithing, meaning that at least 10% of my income automatically goes to support other artists, writers, makers, creatives, performers, etc. So if I meet my goal, we keep at least $10000 of that right in the creative community. I also make every effort to continuously encourage, support, share and promote the work of others.
$100 per year feels like a lot. But it works out to less than $2 per week.
of in Working Through Influences:
“I recently gave my students the assignment to look around their studios, homes, bookshelves, and even the snapshots on their phones for jumping off points, inspiration, and stories. It’s good to go into making art with some ideas; you have to go in with some ideas (or so I believed).
But as an artist, sometimes “stories" and meaning in your art simply cannot be planned, which is troubling if you are a planner, and sometimes ideas just make their way out of you. This often feels like a strange type of therapy, having something make its way out of you. You know you are “in flow,” but it can feel uncomfortable, unplanned, and uncontrollable.”
We can plan and set the stage and invite the work in and sometimes it does completely different things than we ever expected. And sometimes it’s really hard and draining and emotional to let that happen. And sometimes we put up walls and stop it. But we can also put some gates in those walls to let the new work come in without flooding us. For example, creating a structure around our creating, or adding sensory pleasures to our creative spaces to nourish us as we work, or … there are many things.
What are yours?
has a series on Rejection
that is for paid subscribers but even the intro is poignant:
“People have asked me why I don’t try to avoid rejection more in my own life. It’s bad, right?? I’ve been wrongly accused of everything from excessive confidence and masochism to foolhardiness and desperation, but I finally realized I have been rejected so many times that it doesn’t scare me any longer. I have been rejected by a dozen universities, an entire application year of graduate programs, countless crushes, hundreds of jobs, a full spreadsheet of literary journals and artist residencies. Hell, I’ve willingly used dating apps. I have been rejected so many times that I have come to expect it as the outcome and, as such, I no longer fear it. If that’s actually what confidence is, so be it.”
Artists grappling with certain mental health conditions including depression, anxiety, etc. can face distinct challenges when confronted with rejection of their creative work. Such rejection can be particularly tough to handle, as it strikes at the heart of their emotional investment in their art. Negative self-talk and self-doubt can intensify, causing us to question our creative abilities and self-worth. Artists with mental health conditions may find ourselves caught in a cycle of self-criticism that we have to work through. Therefore, it becomes critical to practice self care in regards to how we put ourselves out there and how we process rejection of our work.
John Vogel of shared in Weird Music Episode 7:
“I firmly believe that everyone has the ability to create art, and although there might exist biological underpinnings that make certain people more adept at certain mediums or more driven to pursue creating art, I think that the main determinants are the encouragement received and the resources available. Success in the art world depends on the subjective tastes of the members and whether you can appeal to their sensibilities.
We live in an age now where gatekeeping is still very much in place yet also easier to get past. There’s no way to stop the inevitable extinction that’s always happening, but it is easier to dig for the obscure and try to provide it with some light.”
I also believe that we are all artists while recognizing that there are many barriers to being able to creatively express ourselves in the way that we want depending on lots of different factors and privileges.
of shared Creativity Loves Uncertainty:
“We attach ourselves to jobs, relationships, and life choices that offer the illusion of stability (somehow forgetting that no foundation is less stable than one built on fear).
But here’s what we forget: there’s a positive side of uncertainty, too.
Once our basic needs are met—food, clothing, shelter and the like—not knowing doesn’t have to elicit anxiety. It can elicit hope, experimentation, curiosity, and innovation. Because “not knowing” is also synonymous with “possibility.”
Creating something new, something that didn’t exist before, is an act of exploration. It’s a celebration of possibility.”
I love this perspective. Whenever I feel myself tightening up and getting rigid because of fear, I try to remember to stretch, create space, and be curious. Maddie shares examples from experimental photography where choosing uncertainty creates magic. And this reminds me of how I often tell myself and others that art/craft is a terrific space to practice things - like embracing uncertainty - that would serve us well to practice in bigger place in our lives but can allow us to do so in a way where the risks are relatively small so that we can build that muscle.
RELATED TO UNCERTAINTY: From of in Love Letter to My Life #63
“We live in uncertain times and it’s easy to think that life is scarier and harder now than it was “back then.” That’s probably not true … there have always been plagues and wars and terrorizing marauders. People lived through those times … and people died in those times. We just keep stepping forward, taking the next breath of air.
If there is a message for our times, though, it seems to me that it’s about love and community. We act as if the world were divided into “us” and “them” when, in truth, there is no “them.” There is only “us,” neighbors on this one planet that gives us life.”
Nix in on The Art of Pivoting
“I used to think pivots were bad because it meant I gave up on something. A failure of vision, of faith. When the startup didn’t raise. When that relationship ended. These days I think pivoting signals adaptation. Having the courage to give up sunk cost. You don’t have to keep barreling down the same patterns you always did. An indicator of maturity is knowing that the path forks and you can choose a different route. Or that even one degree of change can be meaningful.”
I tell people that I love quitting things but that’s not the whole story. It’s true that in retrospect all of the quitting was absolutely necessary and important for me at the time that I quit for reasons ranging from I couldn’t keep going due to massive depression to almost enlightened awareness that I could stay on that path but it wasn’t quite the right thing and mostly a lot of stuff in between. I’ve quit jobs, homes, relationships, hobbies, interests, projects, routines … But it’s not actually true that I like the quitting. The moments leading up to quitting are usually fraught with indecision and feeling bad and shame and all the things. The act of quitting usually brings some relief but it’s a mixed bag feeling. It’s only later, when I can see the whole picture of the space that opened up after quitting and sometimes what moved into that space after that I celebrate the quitting. So I appreciate the frame around pivoting here.
of wrote Improving Inpatient Psychiatry
in which he provides some great ideas, based on his many years of experience working with inpatient patients, about improving on various aspects of the care. I noticed:
“Apparently, many hospitals used to have reasonably sized art collections lining their halls, but that may be a thing of the past. Now, the beauty of the hospital space is apparently considered irrelevant. I disagree: if you are sick, dying, or out of your mind, the psychological benefit of having a comforting, beautiful space as opposed to one that is cold, industrial, and mechanized, is not trivial.
Many psychiatric units are sparsely decorated, and whatever furnishings they have tend to be of the meaninglessly generic variety. The decor of many is bland and colorless, perhaps with a half-faded mural or two on some wall. Others are filthy. I’ve been to a few psychiatric hospitals that frankly remind me of a truck stop bathroom on the janitor’s day off. The nice ones tend to be “nice” more in the sense of lacking obvious filth (a good thing), rather than actually being pleasant to look at.”
There’s a project called Hospital Rooms that I first discovered via Instagram and always enjoy seeing the work they’re doing. From their about page:
“Artist Tim A Shaw and curator Niamh White founded Hospital Rooms after a close friend was sectioned and admitted to a mental health hospital. On visiting her, they were shocked to find that the hospital environment was cold and clinical at a time when she was so vulnerable. Having worked in the arts for 10 years each, they felt they had the skills and community to be able to transform these spaces with high quality artworks.”
So that’s what they do through a variety of creative projects. This is just one of Martin’s suggestions with lots of other important ones that sometimes I’m truly shocked we are still having to discuss these days when it should be so obvious. Like the food. When my dad was in the hospital (medical not psychiatric but same same), I was disgusted not just by the food patients got but by the lack of any remotely nutritious options in the cafeteria. In California, where it’s probably better than a lot of places. We know that food and health are intertwined; how is this still a thing?!?!
Love what you’re reading? Pay it forward by sharing it:
of shared Anatomy of An Artist, Illustrated
including some great examples of portraits and self-portraits that combine words and images in a specific way to tell a unique story.
“They are also a great example of a simple Visual Story that relies on both image and text. If you were to take away the image and you have a list of items that don’t make any sense. Take away the text and you have an interesting image, but it doesn’t really tell you anything. But together, the sum is greater than its parts. That’s a visual story.”
I loved her walk down San Francisco’s memory lane with a piece she did and also her newest one that she shared.
of shared Things I forget when I compare myself to others:
“The answer of course lies in the writer’s nemesis – self-esteem. It’s not so much believing in the work itself – there are occasions when a certain feeling in my stomach lets me know I’ve written something good. It’s belief in the right to speak, belief that amongst all these esteemed, lauded, majestic voices, I too may have something to say. Something that people may wish to hear
And I do. Feedback for work such as Dust, or recent poetry films shows that my work can move people. This makes me happy. This makes me want to write. This gives me courage to continue. The truth is that placing in a competition gives me validation, having work selected for publication gives me encouragement and a sense of possibility – but if I am honest the sweetest, most significant feeling comes from the messages and emails I receive to say “that moved me” “you captured how I feel”
Really moved by this idea that self-esteem as a writer isn’t just believing the work is “good” but also believing that we have something valuable to say.
RELATED: From Forget Confidence, Steadfastness is a Far More Realistic Goal by of
“Confidence, in her estimation, was actually not that important. In fact, she admitted to all sorts of crises of confidence along her journey, especially at the beginning. Her success, she explained wasn’t really based on her own self value and worth —it was more her ability to put her feelings about herself (which were often deeply critical) aside and plough steadfastly forward, never wavering from her original goal. She wasn’t a confident young woman; it didn’t matter.”
of shared in Ducks in a Row
about preferring slow and steady in all aspects of life:
“In my professional life I don't wait until the last minute to do stuff. Procrastination only means I'd have to hurry later. I'd rather avoid hurrying so if stuff's gotta be done by a deadline I start right away and work slowly and steadily until it's done. I don't do frantic, I do focus. I do marathon-like dogged persistence. This approach to time use gives me much more leisure - and fun - over the duration of long projects.”
I think the key thing here is that she knows herself. She knows that if she procrastinates she’s going to be frantic and unhappy and she consciously chooses to shape her work to avoid that so that she can enjoy the work itself. This doesn’t mean that the approach itself is for everyone - some people thrive on the last minuteness - but that knowing what’s right for you is what’s key.
RELATED: of Shared Gathering inspiration: A peek into my process and my art journal
And if you enjoy getting insight into an artist’s creative process then this is one of those posts to check out. She explores how she approached her creative work using different prompts and does a great job of really letting us inside her head through that process.
“I hated the collage pieces, though, especially all the primary colors. So out came the paints to push it all back. I decided to incorporate some light green as a stand-in for the fluorescent green, and just had some fun flinging paint at the page. By the time I was done, there were layers of acrylics and dyes, etching, washes and glazes. Still no idea of the story, though.”
wrote What Is The Context?
which provoked thoughts that are a continuation of what both she and I were discussing last week in relation to her post Who Will They Think You Are?
“I ran this training in 1996. I used an overhead projector for my slides. None of us had a mobile phone, computers were bulky, and neither personal computers nor laptops had been invented. Therefore I also had to teach my colleagues how to teach computer illiterate staff at a hospital how to use the computer, and how to type (not that we were very computer literate!)
In years to come one of my family may find this photo, and if it has no caption, context, or personal viewpoint, they will remark that it looked like a fun time and throw it away. By adding my story, they will learn a little more about my history, my personal perspective of the events in my life, and how life was different in 1996.”
I had shared last week about the talk that I went to that was about photographic archives. And this notes how even if we have every picture from our family’s albums, we don’t know the full context without some more words or stories or knowledge about the relationships, etc.
I’m curious to see how this alters and shifts as we move further into the 21st century where SO much personal information is archived and available. But maybe not forever. Or maybe so much that it actually loses context. I was reading somewhere that whereas millennials learned to be afraid of what they put on social media because potential employers would be looking at it later, Gen Zers often don’t care because there’s so much out there already that any one thing is a drop in the bucket and everyone knows that it’s there only in a certain context anyway. The specific media platforms may disappear and then will the media on them disappear? We don’t know.
RELATED: of interviewed about The Value of a Polaroid Summer
“We have always taken pictures. Like for everything. Glamour shots. Olan Mills family pictures. School pictures. Polaroids at the cookout. Church directory family pictures (which were a thing!) My grandmother kept a picture in her living room of her father's family in Mississippi from the early 1900s. It's nice to look at a black-and-white photo from the Reconstruction era and be able to look at a face and say, "I know that face, that's my face!" My grandmother was a medical librarian so she archived everything into picture albums. There's always been a sense of, 'documenting our lives is important' that I really appreciate now that I'm older.”
of shared in Fragments, Bits, Pieces:
“I am never just one thing, even in moments where I assume depression is all that is here. I am not only depressed when I’m experiencing depression: I’m also keenly aware of the subtle and big spots of goodness tucked in between it all. I’m also laughing at breakfast. I’m also really, really angry at the state of our world. I’m also in love and in reverence and in comfortable clothes and in conversation and in grief and in uncertainty and in clichés and in awe. It is never just one thing, is it? It is never just one thing. The relief in that. The dropped shoulders in that.”
Did you sigh reading that like I did?
of shared There’s Murderer in My Garage—And I’m Armed With a F*cking Popsicle Stick
And like she always does shared poignant truths with great humor.
“Suddenly I like this place again, which is saying something because there have been many days where I’m like WHAT HAVE I DONE. And then I remember that what I have done is called living, and there’s something to be said about diving in, tits first, when it comes to big, scary things, and isn’t it funny that most people are scared to go to Nicaragua or Colombia or Mexico or Chile or all of the places I traipsed through for years with a tube of red lipstick and total, blissful naivete—and yet for me, the idea of purchasing this regular old wooden house on a regular five-acre plot of land surrounded by hemlocks and woodpeckers and deer is just SO RADICAL???”
This is a reminder that what’s scary for you is different than what’s scary for others, what’s easy for you is different than what’s easy for others, that to stretch yourself is important but that doesn’t mean jumping out of airplanes (or it might).
of in Poof! Work’s Disappearing Act is a Cheap Trick
Discusses how “most labor-saving innovations transfer work rather than eliminate it.” And she shares some thoughts on AI content generation. This one grabbed my attention:
“Finally, these apps are both the product and the creator of heightened expectations. The proliferation of social media platforms created a demand for more and more social media content. Creators responded by sinking more and more hours into making posts. AI apps seem to help alleviate this demand by generating gobs of content on demand. However, fast content production only serves to increase the expectation that creators will post gobs of content.”
When ChatGPT suddenly hit the headlines and everyone was talking about it, so many people asked me “are you worried it will take over your job?” And I wasn’t because even though I cut my teeth and put food on the table for many years through content writing, I stopped enjoying it and started burning out on it so many years ago. Even before AI, it had all become a machine - SEO/SEM rules and algorithms. I had stopped writing from passion and was just endlessly churning out “content.” In fact I felt relieved: let the machines create that kind of content so I can create original work. Of course, I could have and did create original work all along but my instinct then and still now is that this would ultimately represent a shift away from writing for search engines as everyone came to better understand that they’re built on this formulaic content no one wants to read. But this phrasing from Tara makes me think about the alternative way that could go. Something to muse on.
Short Shares
Just a few more must-reads:
From of in New beginnings
about starting a new school year as a teacher with decades of teaching experience:
“After more than 30 years of doing art, it seems to me ever more difficult to talk about, explain and be dogmatic about any method or approach to learning art. Art is a reflection of the life of the individual and the idiosyncratic ways in which they start to interpret and distort the fundamentals. Most good art is deviant. This makes me more curious about what students bring to the class, than interested in hearing my own voice and story.”
From of in Choosing What Is Good For Us:
“As I remind my students in yoga class, we call it a “practice” because none of us is always consistent, nor do we always reach the goals we set for ourselves. And the journey is never really complete. Each marker moves as we reach them, and morphs into the next, then the next, and the next. These paths sometimes overlap, sometimes diverge, and rarely are they linear. We practice every day, even when we do not go through the motions.”
SCI-FRIDAY
I have been joining in on Sci-Friday. Thanks again to
for inviting me to join. This week instead of sharing five books or movies from the genre, I’m going to share five articles about the relationship between sci-fi and mental health. Note that these are not Substack articles.1. Destigmatizing Mental Illness in Speculative Fiction by H.R. Parker of Fictionate.me
which recommends five novels that deal with women’s mental health.
“Many modern authors in sci-fi and fantasy are now creating strong, gritty heroines who battle their own demons with one hand and save the world (or at least their small part of it) with the other. It just goes to show us as readers that we do the same thing every day, just maybe in a smaller context. So maybe we’re not battling with crippling depression while trying to solve our sister’s murder or save a planet from utter destruction, but we have our own battles all the same. Sometimes the battle is just getting out of bed to take a shower.”
2. Why Science Fiction Speaks the Language of Anxiety by Tracy A. Dennis-Tiwary Ph.D. from Psychology Today
which explores the history of when science fiction has surged in popularity and how that relates to world traumas and difficulties and collective mental health:
“All that to say, sci-fi is the genre of change, of human potential, of how, through technology, people change the world and themselves, for better and for worse. It’s because sci-fi is the fulfillment of anxieties and hopes that, if you do a running tally, it’s actually not that good at predicting the future. No evil AI taking over the world, flying cars, androids running amok, or jacking into an intoxicating metaverse through our cranial ports...yet. What the great works of sci-fi are really good at is helping people grapple with the concerns, conflicts, and anxieties of the day through the comfortable distance of a parable.”
This also explains a bit why research shows Sci-Fi and Fantasy Build Mental Resiliency in Young Readers
3. The Alien Says Don’t Take Your Meds: Neurodiversity and Mental Health Treatment in TV SF/F by Tansy Rayner Roberts in Uncanny Magazine
discusses how:
“When you’re trying to explain a specific medical disorder or condition to a layperson, it can help sometimes to have TV shows or films to point to as examples with built–in sympathy. But depictions of mental health on television are often more damaging than helpful, especially if they emphasize outdated or wrong ideas, if they treat neurodiversity as a joke, or if they replicate harmful patterns unthinkingly.”
and argues that it’s been problematic in a lot of science fiction because conditions are dismissed as aliens or magic or unreal rather than depicted in realistic ways. Tansy points to one that’s done a better job:
“The most ethical and layered TV example I can think of that explores neurodiversity in a science fictional universe is the portrayal of Walter Bishop in Fringe. Walter’s original psychotic break, his long period of isolation in mental hospitals, and his ongoing patterns of behavior all emerge from a series of traumatic events connected to his work in “fringe science.” However, the various explanations behind his mental collapse and his ongoing state of mind (including deliberate brain damage) do not make his condition any less real.”
4. Research: Women in Online Science Fiction Fandoms: Psychological WellBeing
“A qualitative research design was used to listen to the experiences of women who engaged in science fiction fandom activities through online social media and how these experiences impacted their psychological well-being.”
“Five themes appeared from the data: nonjudgmental fandom culture, positive impact on personal relationships, mental health-related experiences, fandom as coping, and impact of negative experiences. Results showed that women who engaged in fandom activity were drawn to those communities due to the nonjudgmental nature of that fandom culture and the relationships that they formed. All participants felt their participation positively affected their psychological well-being and actively used it as an emotional coping skill.”
5. Mental Health Representation in Fantasy Novels from Witty and Sarcastic Book Club
“Here are a few books that either have a character with a mental illness (done respectfully) or have themes of mental illness, such as depression. Because who says you can’t discuss mental health and dragons in the same book?”
Find more Sci-Friday recommendations and thoughts this week from:
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Another comprehensive and inspiring compilation, thank you Kathryn! Such food for thought and insights into great minds 💚
thank you, little voice. all through our transformations we hear what Gretel Ehrilch called 'the double voice':
"one says everything is ripe; the other says everything is dying. The paradox is exquisite. We feel what the Japanese call ‘aware’—an almost untranslatable word meaning something like 'beauty tinged with sadness.’"