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Life writing and mental illness

Sue Bond (2009-01-07)

  

An absorbing article on the small scale study. I would be interested to know more details (without breaching privacy) about the actual writing accomplished during the sessions. That is, how participants began to think about their life experiences and how they translated them into stories on the page, the type of narrative structures they chose, and so forth. And, of course, whether different ways of telling their life stories made any difference to their mental health in the short or long term. Does the prospect of publication make any difference, or is it just as effective if the writing is private?

Catharsis, in my own experience as a person with mental health problems, has benefits that are short term and useful, but in the long term something else has to happen. In writing my own memoir stories, I have struggled with being unable to finish the project, despite much writing, reading, talking and so forth. I notice that the collection I have completed so far is full of repetition, as if I cannot get past certain stories. There is a block, not the usual 'writer's block' but something else related to my own psyche and its difficulties with my past experiences, particularly certain key traumatic experiences involving mental health.

Thank you for your article, and I look forward to further studies on this topic.