Good for both Mental Illness Awareness Month and Halloween
October 19, 2016 8:21 AM Subscribe
Very much from the Gerald Scarfe school, they remind me of his work for Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 8:49 AM on October 19, 2016
posted by GallonOfAlan at 8:49 AM on October 19, 2016
Ooof, the PTSD one... my invisible monster.
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 8:58 AM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 8:58 AM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
This piece seems almost like it's supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek joke about mental illness. But I'm not laughing. And I'm usually quite the wiseass.
Strelitzia's Halloween coloring book would include an image me laying in bed until 3:00 in the afternoon, covers over me with just a sliver of the upside-down candy-filled plastic pumpkin head basket sticking out of the sheets that I managed to eat my way 3/4 through due to the meds that are supposed to keep me sane. Empty candy papers continue on the following six pages.
Mental illness sucks.
Halloween is supposed to be fun.
Ergo, mutual exclusivity between mental illness and Halloween is my platform.
posted by strelitzia at 9:04 AM on October 19, 2016
Strelitzia's Halloween coloring book would include an image me laying in bed until 3:00 in the afternoon, covers over me with just a sliver of the upside-down candy-filled plastic pumpkin head basket sticking out of the sheets that I managed to eat my way 3/4 through due to the meds that are supposed to keep me sane. Empty candy papers continue on the following six pages.
Mental illness sucks.
Halloween is supposed to be fun.
Ergo, mutual exclusivity between mental illness and Halloween is my platform.
posted by strelitzia at 9:04 AM on October 19, 2016
I'm not sure I'm on board with not only the "illness" being portrayed as a monster (which, of course it can be for those experiencing it) , but that the individual, in many cases, is pictured as monstrous to some degree as well.
I'm also wondering about the stereotyping happening here. Yes, mental illness can be a terrible burden for some, at some times. But it's not always going to feel like being cast into the pit of hell surrounded by fanged and clawed creatures. The nuances of mental illness aren't this black and white.
posted by HuronBob at 9:40 AM on October 19, 2016 [12 favorites]
I'm also wondering about the stereotyping happening here. Yes, mental illness can be a terrible burden for some, at some times. But it's not always going to feel like being cast into the pit of hell surrounded by fanged and clawed creatures. The nuances of mental illness aren't this black and white.
posted by HuronBob at 9:40 AM on October 19, 2016 [12 favorites]
Sometimes I feel like a monster. I don't feel stereotyped here.
posted by a mirror and an encyclopedia at 9:58 AM on October 19, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by a mirror and an encyclopedia at 9:58 AM on October 19, 2016 [3 favorites]
(Maybe others do feel stereotyped, though, and that's also a legitimate reaction.)
posted by a mirror and an encyclopedia at 9:59 AM on October 19, 2016
posted by a mirror and an encyclopedia at 9:59 AM on October 19, 2016
On reflection, I suppose the question of how people that don't suffer from a mental illness interpret these images is also important. Maybe the takeaway for some people might be "anybody with a mental illness is a deeply distorted person, totally incapable of functioning in any context."
That would be bad.
Instead, my personal inclination is to view these pictures as basically expressionistic — they're trying to convey something subjective, from the perspective of the sufferer. I appreciate that, and don't feel insulted or anything. But maybe somebody who's never been totally crippled by a mental illness wouldn't see this.
I do think the art style is a bit kitschy.
Aight. I'll stop spamming the thread now.
posted by a mirror and an encyclopedia at 10:07 AM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
That would be bad.
Instead, my personal inclination is to view these pictures as basically expressionistic — they're trying to convey something subjective, from the perspective of the sufferer. I appreciate that, and don't feel insulted or anything. But maybe somebody who's never been totally crippled by a mental illness wouldn't see this.
I do think the art style is a bit kitschy.
Aight. I'll stop spamming the thread now.
posted by a mirror and an encyclopedia at 10:07 AM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
This piece seems almost like it's supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek joke about mental illness. But I'm not laughing. And I'm usually quite the wiseass.
I'm not laughing either. My mental illness is a horror movie that I live through every day and I find the spookiest time of the year to be oddly comforting.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 10:11 AM on October 19, 2016
I'm not laughing either. My mental illness is a horror movie that I live through every day and I find the spookiest time of the year to be oddly comforting.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 10:11 AM on October 19, 2016
ftr i have bipolar 1 and adhd. my experiences with bipolar 1 have been plenty terrifying, and i definitely experience it as an affliction; adhd likewise is something i struggle with.
autism isn't an affliction to me. it's who i am— it's built in to how i think & how i perceive the world. i've lead a stressful life as a side effect of being spectrum; but that's a product of the neurotypical world i live in. my brain is not at fault there. my environment is.
so yeah not super happy to see that part of my identity listed among severe mental illnesses, for the same reason i'd be unhappy to see being transgender in that gallery.
posted by magentaisafuncolortobe at 10:42 AM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
autism isn't an affliction to me. it's who i am— it's built in to how i think & how i perceive the world. i've lead a stressful life as a side effect of being spectrum; but that's a product of the neurotypical world i live in. my brain is not at fault there. my environment is.
so yeah not super happy to see that part of my identity listed among severe mental illnesses, for the same reason i'd be unhappy to see being transgender in that gallery.
posted by magentaisafuncolortobe at 10:42 AM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
On reflection, I suppose the question of how people that don't suffer from a mental illness interpret these images is also important.
I don't have any diagnosed mental illnesses, and to me it illustrates that the people who have them can have monstrous experiences - I would guess that other people "on the outside" would have the same takeaway: It's an illness, there are good days and bad, and this is what the bad can feel like.
Maybe it's a stupid analogy, but I have a "trick knee" - on one hand, I ran a marathon this year; on the other, some days I physically have difficulty getting out of bed.
posted by psoas at 10:49 AM on October 19, 2016 [1 favorite]
I don't have any diagnosed mental illnesses, and to me it illustrates that the people who have them can have monstrous experiences - I would guess that other people "on the outside" would have the same takeaway: It's an illness, there are good days and bad, and this is what the bad can feel like.
Maybe it's a stupid analogy, but I have a "trick knee" - on one hand, I ran a marathon this year; on the other, some days I physically have difficulty getting out of bed.
posted by psoas at 10:49 AM on October 19, 2016 [1 favorite]
Also, I appreciate the comments under each illustration that generally say, "I have this syndrome and that picture resonates."
posted by psoas at 10:54 AM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by psoas at 10:54 AM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
Yup, I'm with magentaisafuncolortobe. I was very much like "yeah, okay, I could see this--" and then I got to the autism spectrum one and went what. There isn't a difference between my autistic self and my "real" self; there's just me. So the depiction of autism as like... a person with teeth coming out of their head? both made no sense to me and also felt pretty offensive.
When I looked more closely, also, I found that many of the disorders portrayed are really stereotypical depictions of what it's like to experience that condition. Like.... the anorexia one. Is it novel or particularly interesting to portray anorexia personified as an extremely thin person? Wouldn't it be more evocative to try to depict the need for control via art instead, if you're trying to communicate the experience of anorexia? Or BPD--that illustration is so much more about how a woman with BPD is seen by the people around her rather than her own experiences. Why are paranoid schizophrenia and schizophrenia split?
I guess I was interested and excited by the concept, and the execution of disorders like panic disorder and anxiety was very good, and then when it got to conditions that I suspect the artist doesn't have personal experience with.... blech.
posted by sciatrix at 11:36 AM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
When I looked more closely, also, I found that many of the disorders portrayed are really stereotypical depictions of what it's like to experience that condition. Like.... the anorexia one. Is it novel or particularly interesting to portray anorexia personified as an extremely thin person? Wouldn't it be more evocative to try to depict the need for control via art instead, if you're trying to communicate the experience of anorexia? Or BPD--that illustration is so much more about how a woman with BPD is seen by the people around her rather than her own experiences. Why are paranoid schizophrenia and schizophrenia split?
I guess I was interested and excited by the concept, and the execution of disorders like panic disorder and anxiety was very good, and then when it got to conditions that I suspect the artist doesn't have personal experience with.... blech.
posted by sciatrix at 11:36 AM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
Mod note: Couple comments removed, let's try and keep it a little cooler and more productive in here.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:15 PM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:15 PM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
I sometimes forget that not everybody thinks the way I do.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 12:30 PM on October 19, 2016
posted by OverlappingElvis at 12:30 PM on October 19, 2016
On reflection: I'm sorry if anyone was offended by this post but I can tell you that for me personally as someone struggling with actual mental illness (and I understand not believing you fall under that definition) that feels like a monster and that seems to want me dead, the concept of neurodiversity has basically nothing to offer. Maybe it was a mistake for the artist to include controversial mental illnesses but not everybody is OK just the way they are. Maybe if you don't think this applies to you, leave some room for the people it does. I'm tired of pretending that having severe OCD is no big deal and that I'm fine the way I am. I'm not, I have a disorder, and it's a big fucking deal, and if making a post about scary drawings is the only way to get that out into the world then that's fine by me.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 12:49 PM on October 19, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by OverlappingElvis at 12:49 PM on October 19, 2016 [3 favorites]
i must have brain fog today...to be absolutely clear, the link here goes to the fb page of a different artist who did a mental health piece this month. sorry for any confusion.
I don't really find coss's work representative of my experiences: too horror-film-like. to me, the scariest thing about the struggles i have is how banal everything seems right up until crisis.
posted by j_curiouser at 12:55 PM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
I don't really find coss's work representative of my experiences: too horror-film-like. to me, the scariest thing about the struggles i have is how banal everything seems right up until crisis.
posted by j_curiouser at 12:55 PM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
Well, that's the trick, isn't it? Not all brain diversity is neutral. Some inherently sucks balls for everyone involved, like anxiety and OCD. And some fits more under social models of disability, like autism spectrum stuff, where whether or not your brain type makes your life hell is defined by your social context and your environment.
That's the case for lots of disabilities, to be honest. There are physical disabilities where the person's experience of disability is mediated mostly by context (Deaf folks, for example, often make similar arguments) and physical disabilities where the consensus of affected people genuinely is "please fix me now, Jesus Christ" (for example, most of the people with chronic pain I know fall in this group).
Neurodiversity is fundamentally a disability movement run for and by people with mental shit that falls into the "I'm not the problem, the problem is that I'm existing in a context that isn't set up for me" camp. It's not really that surprising to me that it would be unappealing to people whose disabilities are inherently distressing, which is the case for many people with OCD, anxiety, depression, and PTSD (among others). Not coincidentally, those are the disorders I think this series is generally best at, especially when the artist is clearly trying to depict the experience of the person with a thing instead of the viewpoint of that person's loved ones.
This is basically a fundamental divide within pockets of disability activism based on the experiences of different disabilities, and it's one that I wish people would keep in mind before embarking on projects like this. Mental health isn't any more of a monolith than physical health is.
posted by sciatrix at 2:00 PM on October 19, 2016 [7 favorites]
That's the case for lots of disabilities, to be honest. There are physical disabilities where the person's experience of disability is mediated mostly by context (Deaf folks, for example, often make similar arguments) and physical disabilities where the consensus of affected people genuinely is "please fix me now, Jesus Christ" (for example, most of the people with chronic pain I know fall in this group).
Neurodiversity is fundamentally a disability movement run for and by people with mental shit that falls into the "I'm not the problem, the problem is that I'm existing in a context that isn't set up for me" camp. It's not really that surprising to me that it would be unappealing to people whose disabilities are inherently distressing, which is the case for many people with OCD, anxiety, depression, and PTSD (among others). Not coincidentally, those are the disorders I think this series is generally best at, especially when the artist is clearly trying to depict the experience of the person with a thing instead of the viewpoint of that person's loved ones.
This is basically a fundamental divide within pockets of disability activism based on the experiences of different disabilities, and it's one that I wish people would keep in mind before embarking on projects like this. Mental health isn't any more of a monolith than physical health is.
posted by sciatrix at 2:00 PM on October 19, 2016 [7 favorites]
I can relate to feeling like a monster when in the throes of bipolar depression or borderline emotional dysregulation, so I am not personally offended by these drawings. Having said that, German toy maker Paraplush has produced some more sympathetic portrayals.
posted by xyzzy at 4:13 PM on October 19, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by xyzzy at 4:13 PM on October 19, 2016 [1 favorite]
Social anxiety is a lot more subtle than that for me. It's not a monster. It's someone who seems like my friend, but all the "helpful" advice they give me actually undermines me and makes me feel terrible about myself. Social anxiety is some 12-year-old girl named Becky who likes to helpfully suggest that the outfit that I just spent six months of babysitting money on might not really be fashionable anymore.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:46 PM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:46 PM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
Instead, my personal inclination is to view these pictures as basically expressionistic — they're trying to convey something subjective, from the perspective of the sufferer. I appreciate that, and don't feel insulted or anything. But maybe somebody who's never been totally crippled by a mental illness wouldn't see this.
Agreed x 1000
posted by scratch at 6:19 PM on October 19, 2016
Agreed x 1000
posted by scratch at 6:19 PM on October 19, 2016
And I, for one, think these images are fantastic. Sure, not all people with mental illnesses are paralyzed with fear and loathing by their "personal demons" (for want of a much better term), but lots of us are. For me, the artist's style--though admittedly stylized and a little repetitious--rings very true.
posted by scratch at 6:22 PM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by scratch at 6:22 PM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
Thanks for posting this!
I am a bit conflicted about how the art makes me feel; the style is not the sort that usually attracts my attention,but I do enjoy the examination of different disorders using the same jarring approach.
I spent a while looking at the Bipolar one, trying to see if I could find something relatable. I don't know if the duality of the disorder and the bright sparkle of mania are in there (for me) but I do see the struggle of trying to control the disorder, the monster I feel like when I hear about things I said and did while manic that I have no memories of, the horror of being on antipsychotic meds, of weaning off the meds.
posted by danabanana at 7:47 AM on October 20, 2016
I am a bit conflicted about how the art makes me feel; the style is not the sort that usually attracts my attention,but I do enjoy the examination of different disorders using the same jarring approach.
I spent a while looking at the Bipolar one, trying to see if I could find something relatable. I don't know if the duality of the disorder and the bright sparkle of mania are in there (for me) but I do see the struggle of trying to control the disorder, the monster I feel like when I hear about things I said and did while manic that I have no memories of, the horror of being on antipsychotic meds, of weaning off the meds.
posted by danabanana at 7:47 AM on October 20, 2016
Sciatrix's first comment really rang true with me. Since I suffer from social anxiety, when the very first image was so far off it just discredited the rest of them in my mind. It felt more like someone was just making artistic version of cursive Wikipedia lookups.
Why is the sufferer being depicted as a monster? I'm not a monster. Unlovable, repulsive and destined to die alone, but that's an unrelated body-image and self-worth issue related to toxic relationships that don't make a monster. Why are they scared of these reaching hands? Am I the only SAD sufferer that craves socializing? I would love to be able to go on a date or casually make new friends, the problem is that my brain makes this an insurmountable task fraught with peril. Inviting someone in my office to join me for lunch might as well be me attempting to scale Halfdome as far as my mind views the consequences of failure. Every casual conversation is me trying to operate a machine with a thousand pulleys and switches and levers and if I make one wrong move the whole world's nuclear stockpile will detonate and turn the planet to ash. Why would I go out of my way to risk that, when I can just isolate the suffering to myself?
If I had any artistic ability I would depict social anxiety as someone with a terrified look chained to the bottom of ravine, simultaneously reaching out one feeble arm while wrapping the other tightly around their own bondage. But I'm not an artist and everyone suffers differently, so what do I know.
And don't even get me started on the eyes agape, melty, toothy depressive monster...
posted by OMGTehAwsome at 8:02 AM on October 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Why is the sufferer being depicted as a monster? I'm not a monster. Unlovable, repulsive and destined to die alone, but that's an unrelated body-image and self-worth issue related to toxic relationships that don't make a monster. Why are they scared of these reaching hands? Am I the only SAD sufferer that craves socializing? I would love to be able to go on a date or casually make new friends, the problem is that my brain makes this an insurmountable task fraught with peril. Inviting someone in my office to join me for lunch might as well be me attempting to scale Halfdome as far as my mind views the consequences of failure. Every casual conversation is me trying to operate a machine with a thousand pulleys and switches and levers and if I make one wrong move the whole world's nuclear stockpile will detonate and turn the planet to ash. Why would I go out of my way to risk that, when I can just isolate the suffering to myself?
If I had any artistic ability I would depict social anxiety as someone with a terrified look chained to the bottom of ravine, simultaneously reaching out one feeble arm while wrapping the other tightly around their own bondage. But I'm not an artist and everyone suffers differently, so what do I know.
And don't even get me started on the eyes agape, melty, toothy depressive monster...
posted by OMGTehAwsome at 8:02 AM on October 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
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posted by OverlappingElvis at 8:23 AM on October 19, 2016 [2 favorites]