Lucid, Likable, and Hopefully Sane: The Narrative Medicine of Socio-Psychiatric Recovery
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Graduation Year
2023
Writing Track
Narrative/Poetic Medicine
Degree
Master of Fine Arts
Program
Creative Writing
Program Director
Judy Halebsky, PhD
First Reader
Judy Halebsky, PhD
Second Reader
Claudia Morales, PhD
Description
Lucid, Likable, and Hopefully Sane: The Narrative Medicine of Socio-Psychiatric Recovery provides a detailed document of the author’s recovery from psychotic mental illness. This collection includes a curated selection of vignettes ranging from humorous to surrealist to downright grim. The hybrid-genre work takes readers into a tapestry of topics, including type I manic-psychotic bipolar, comorbid diagnoses, pop-culture and AI, philosophy of the mind, bisexual identity, Ehlers-Danlos and physical pain, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, the art of standup comedy, and cross-diagnoses friendships – all within the context of an American, late-stage capitalist system. This long list of topics is matched by the wide range of genres employed through the duration of this text. Within an adult millennial identity, she writes through experiences spanning from 2010 - 2023. The physical settings range from public locked unit hospitals in and around San Francisco, to conducting spiritual rituals under the fog of Northern California bay waters, amongst the coyote brush. Lucid, Likable, and Hopefully Sane is the seed of a longer multi-genre memoir.