Date of Award

Spring 5-4-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

Self-Determined Majors

First Advisor

Peter McCarthy

Second Advisor

April Bernard

Abstract

In this collection, I have used fiction to explore my academic focus on the holistic perception of mental health and healing. In my time at Skidmore College, I have explored all kinds of perspectives– religious/spiritual, psychosocial, medical, anthropological– what I have found is that the only generalizable thing is our need to tell a story about what we’re going through. My collection strives to show the value in the experiences of people with mental illnesses and addictions: how these experiences are often sidelined or seen as inferior/incorrect/out of touch with reality, but how these “alternative” realities can create inspiration, excitement, and enrich the world just as much as the experiences of neurotypical people and non-drug users. These narratives propose many ways to view mental illness and addiction: falling on spectrums between biological/spiritual, physical/mental, trauma-based and genetic. These stories suggest the origin of mental difference isn’t something that can be unanimously explained, and is entirely individual in the way that it is perceived, managed and expressed.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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