Northampton Electronic Collection of Theses and Research

Fractured memoirs of a paranoid schizophrenic – one man’s autobiographical journey towards diagnostic embodiment

Smith, L.-A. and Tucker, I. M. (2009) Fractured memoirs of a paranoid schizophrenic – one man’s autobiographical journey towards diagnostic embodiment. Paper presented to: Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers) Annual Conference, Manchester, 26-28 August 2009. (Unpublished)

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Abstract:
“...and once upon a time they used to go ‘schizo’ you know ‘mental man’...” Here Jim, a 50 year old mental health service user, talks about his social identity within his local neighbourhood. His memories of life entangled within discourses of ‘self’, space and materiality (his diagnostic identity). These habitual surroundings are important anchors in how his narratives are (re)contextualised in terms of unfolding his temporal sense of being in the present (Reavey & Brown, 2007). This paper explores the myriad of discursive ways in which Jim shapes and reshapes his past to reify his embodied experience of paranoid schizophrenia. Here we have recollections of twists and turns, fissions and inertia, love and indifference, resistance and compliance. Rather than offering an exponential account of symmetrical contractions and extensions, we discuss the dialectic of affective memories whereby the virtual dissolves with the permanent.
Subjects:
R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC435 Psychiatry > RC512 Psychopathology. Mental disorders > RC514 Schizophrenia
Creators:
Smith, L.-A. and Tucker, I. M.
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes:
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > School of Social Sciences (to 2016)
University Faculties, Divisions and Research Centres - OLD > Faculty of Health & Society > Psychology
Faculties > Faculty of Health & Society > Psychology
Date:
August 2009
Date Type:
Presentation
Event Title:
Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers) Annual Conference
Event Dates:
26-28 August 2009
Event Location:
Manchester
Event Type:
Conference
Language:
English
Status:
Unpublished
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