An Unfriendly Spirit-Bipolar Disorder In/As Performance
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AN UNFRIENDLY SPIRIT: BIPOLAR DISORDER IN/AS PERFORMANCE Alexis Riley A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2015 Committee: Lesa Lockford, Advisor Jonathan Chambers ii ABSTRACT Lesa Lockford, Advisor In 1921, German psychologist Emil Krapelin published the first formal account of bipolar disorder in his book Manic-Depressive Insanity and Paranoia. Since Krapelin’s initial publication, clinical understandings of bipolar disorder have shifted, moving from detailed descriptive accounts of patient behavior to codified diagnostic criteria based on patient affect. While helpful in determining the appropriate treatment for bipolar disorder, many contemporary manuals offer little information on the patient’s experience of self and disorder, thus cultivating a troubling lacuna in understandings of bipolarity. Given the pervasive stigma surrounding mental health issues, recovering the patient’s experience is of paramount importance to connecting people with care while simultaneously giving voice to a growing population of individuals deemed “mentally ill.” In this thesis, I interrogate the performative nature of bipolar disorder through an examination of specific contexts that shape the patient’s understanding of self and disorder. Drawing on my own experiences as a woman diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I employ autoethnography and performative writing to better render my bipolar experience. In doing so, I position the clinic, the home, and the stage as sites of struggle, each drawing on specific aspects of performance to construct the patient’s identity. In exploring how these constructions interact with pervasive notions of stigma, I question the ways in which performance might contribute to stigmatizing understandings of mental health while simultaneously providing the patient with a means through which to understand and, at times, subvert that identity. iii Drawing on theories of neurotypicality, I argue that in the clinic, bipolar patients are positioned as “other” through a process of clinical performance criticism—wherein a clinician makes a bipolar diagnosis based on the patient’s alterior performance—thus supporting hegemonic notions of normative neurology that contribute to stigma. While problematic, this process also gifts the patient with a vocabulary by which to communicate and understand bipolar disorder, providing a means to engage treatment options for optimal management. In the home, I focus more squarely on my own familial narrative of “touched” women. Drawing on Marianne Hirsch’s theory of postmemory, I dissect this narrative, highlighting the ways in which this act of transmission provides a means by which stigmatizing images of mental illness are subverted and reclaimed. I also note the ways in which the patriarchal structure of my own family relegates this transmission to “women’s spaces,” thus positioning the home as a place of contest between safety and stigma. Finally, I examine bipolar performance in the theatre, drawing on my experience as a bipolar actress playing a woman who experiences a mental episode in Rebecca Gillman’s The Sweetest Swing in Baseball. I place my experience in dialogue with Marvin Carlson’s theory of ghosting in order to interrogate the ways in which theatrical performance brings the performative elements of bipolar disorder to bear on the body, providing a means through which the performer might interact with the fear of stigma ghosted onto her/his performance. I also suggest that while challenging, the act of performing additionally provides the opportunity for the performer to exercise agency in her/his performance of character, and by extension, her/his performance of self and disorder. In pointing to the contexts that contribute to constructions of self and disorder, I also point to the ways in which performance supports and subverts stigma. Ultimately, I position bipolarity as a fluid identity that is inextricably linked to performance and is, like performance, always in-flux and ever contested. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To those who have given their time, energy and support, I offer my sincerest thanks: My advisor, Dr. Lesa Lockford, for challenging insight, invaluable enthusiasm, and endless generosity. My committee, Dr. Jonathan Chambers, for excellent counsel, much-needed humor, and appreciated patience. The Bowling Green State University Department of Theatre and Film, for gracious funding and resources. Dr. Jennifer Cavanaugh, for constant encouragement. (Dr.) Slade Billew, for all things. And my mother. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page NO. 1: THE SUBJECT.......................................................................................................... 1 NO. 2: THE CLINIC .......................................................................................................... 15 INTRODUCTIONS .................................................................................................. 15 ...........UNTITLED 1 ............................................................................................... 17 FROM SINGULARITY TO EXPANSION: ORIGINS .......................................... 18 ...........HOW TO BIPOLAR ................................................................................... 21 BRAVING THE ALTERIOR: NEUROTYPICAL LONGINGS ........................... 22 ...........AN ODE TO DIAGNOSIS .......................................................................... 26 THE NAMING ........................................................................................................ 27 ...........I AM CRYING ............................................................................................ 32 A PASSING FANCY: NAMING FEARS .............................................................. 33 ...........UNTITLED 2 ............................................................................................... 36 INTERROGATING PERFORMATIVES: REVISIONS ........................................ 38 APOLOGIES ........................................................................................................... 42 NO. 3: THE HOME ........................................................................................................... 44 PSA NUMBER ONE .............................................................................................. 45 INTRODUCTIONS ................................................................................................ 45 ...........MY MOTHER AND I .................................................................................. 49 “WE’VE FOUND A WITCH—MAY WE BURN HER?” ...................................... 50 ALICE NUTTER ..................................................................................................... 54 ...........GOOD CHRISTIAN WOMEN ................................................................... 57 iv IDA ........................................................................................................... 58 ALEXIS ........................................................................................................... 59 ...........NOT IN MY CAVE ..................................................................................... 60 IN POST-MEMORIUM .......................................................................................... 61 ...........UNTITLED 3 ............................................................................................... 66 LONGING FOR REMEMORY: WITHOLDINGS ................................................ 66 NO. 4: THE STAGE .......................................................................................................... 72 PSA NUMBER TWO................................................................................................ 72 AUGUST 2011: THE SWEETEST SWING............................................................. 74 ...........DANA AND GARY .................................................................................... 80 A AND A’: PERFORMING BIPOLARITY ............................................................ 80 ...........GILBERT AND STANTON ....................................................................... 83 IT’S LIKE I’M LOSING MY MIND ...................................................................... 85 ...........UNTITLED 4 ............................................................................................... 89 MEDIATING IDENTITY ....................................................................................... 90 ...........ALL ACTORS ARE LIARS ....................................................................... 92 LES DEMOISELLES DE L'ÉTAGE ...................................................................... 93 NO. 5: THE SUBJECT3 .................................................................................................... 102 REFLECTIONS ....................................................................................................... 102 ...........UNTITLED 5 ............................................................................................... 113 APPENDIX A . ........................................................................................................... 114 APPENDIX B ........................................................................................................... 117 APPENDIX C ........................................................................................................... 120 iv WORKS CITED ..........................................................................................................