{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,11,2]],"date-time":"2026-11-02T22:20:24Z","timestamp":1793658024989,"version":"4.5.1"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,5,13]],"date-time":"2019-05-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1557705600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Health (London)"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,1]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Representation of psychological experiences necessitates a creative use of means of expression. In the field of graphic medicine, autobiographical narratives on mental illness find expression through the unique semiotic nature of comics, which facilitates the encapsulation of complex psychic-scapes and embodiment of the artist\u2019s experiences. In so doing, these verbal\u2013visual techniques provide vividness and easily digested expression, translating the sufferer\u2019s altered mental perspective effectively for the reader. The deployment of such elements inherent in the medium facilitates multilayered connections to the patient narrative, which provide a depth beyond the raw medical discourse. The present essay, with reference to Ellen Forney\u2019s Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, &amp; Me: A Graphic Memoir and Allie Brosh\u2019s Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and other Things That Happened, investigates the mediative value of rhetorical devices unique to the medium of comics in actualizing the subjective experience of mental illness. The essay also seeks to delineate the cultural power of graphic memoirs by positioning them at the crossroads of sufferer\u2019s experiences and clinical description, drawing on theoretical insights from George Lakoff and Mark Johnson and other graphic pathographers\/theorists, such as Ian Williams and Elisabeth El Refaie.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/1363459319846930","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,5,13]],"date-time":"2019-05-13T07:31:06Z","timestamp":1557732666000},"page":"37-50","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Drawing the mind: Aesthetics of representing mental illness in select graphic memoirs"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"25","author":[{"given":"Sathyaraj","family":"Venkatesan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"National Institute of Technology (NIT), Trichy, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1935-5891","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sweetha","family":"Saji","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Institute of Technology (NIT), Trichy, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,5,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-1363459319846930","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1353\/mfs.2007.0001"},{"key":"bibr2-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Depresso: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embraced Being Bonkers","author":"Brick","year":"2010"},{"key":"bibr3-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened","author":"Brosh A","year":"2013"},{"key":"bibr4-1363459319846930","unstructured":"Brosh A (2013b) Interview with Allie Brosh. Goodreads. Available at: http:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/interviews\/show\/913.Allie_Brosh (accessed 30 November 2015)."},{"key":"bibr5-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics","author":"Chute H","year":"2010"},{"key":"bibr6-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Why Comics: From Underground to Everywhere","author":"Chute H","year":"2017"},{"key":"bibr7-1363459319846930","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/08989575.2018.1445585"},{"key":"bibr8-1363459319846930","unstructured":"Crace J (2013) Ellen Forney: A graphic memoir of bipolar disorder. The Guardian, 1 September. Available at: http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/2013\/sep\/01\/ellen-forney-graphic-memoir-bipolar-disorder (accessed 16 November 2016)."},{"key":"bibr9-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Psychiatric Tales","author":"Cunningham D","year":"2010"},{"key":"bibr10-1363459319846930","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5325\/j.ctv14gpdqh"},{"key":"bibr11-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Graphic Medicine Manifesto","author":"Czerwiec MK","year":"2015"},{"key":"bibr12-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Monsters","author":"Dahl K","year":"2009"},{"key":"bibr13-1363459319846930","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/21504857.2015.1131173"},{"key":"bibr14-1363459319846930","volume-title":"The Spiral Cage: Diary of an Astral Gypsy","author":"Davison A","year":"1990"},{"key":"bibr15-1363459319846930","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1353\/con.2014.0013"},{"key":"bibr16-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Mom\u2019s Cancer","author":"Fies B","year":"2006"},{"key":"bibr17-1363459319846930","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1515\/9783110215366"},{"key":"bibr18-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me: A Graphic Memoir","author":"Forney E","year":"2012"},{"key":"bibr19-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Depression and Brain Dysfunction","author":"Gilliam FG","year":"2006"},{"key":"bibr20-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Health and Illness: Images of Difference","author":"Gilman S","year":"1995"},{"key":"bibr21-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Seeing the Insane: A Visual and Cultural History of Our Attitudes toward the Mentally Ill","author":"Gilman S","year":"2014"},{"key":"bibr22-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary","author":"Green J","year":"1972"},{"key":"bibr23-1363459319846930","volume-title":"The Story of My Tits","author":"Hayden J","year":"2015"},{"key":"bibr24-1363459319846930","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1632\/003081204X17798"},{"key":"bibr25-1363459319846930","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1515\/9781503620308"},{"key":"bibr26-1363459319846930","volume-title":"I Had a Black Dog","author":"Johnstone M","year":"2007"},{"key":"bibr27-1363459319846930","unstructured":"Klein S (2014) What bipolar disorder really feels like. The Huffington Post, 18 September. Available at: http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.in\/entry\/bipolar-disorder-ellen-forney_n_5823138 (accessed 1 August 2017)."},{"key":"bibr28-1363459319846930","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7208\/chicago\/9780226470993.001.0001"},{"key":"bibr29-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer\u2019s, My Mother, and Me","author":"Leavitt S","year":"2012"},{"key":"bibr30-1363459319846930","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.5007\/2175-8026.2015v68n2p75"},{"key":"bibr31-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Medicine as Culture: Illness, Disease and the Body in Western Societies","author":"Lupton D","year":"2003"},{"key":"bibr32-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art","author":"McCloud S","year":"1994"},{"issue":"1","key":"bibr33-1363459319846930","volume":"9","author":"McMullin S","year":"2015","journal-title":"Word Gathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature"},{"key":"bibr34-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Bitter Medicine: A Graphic Memoir of Mental Illness","author":"Martini C","year":"2010"},{"key":"bibr35-1363459319846930","unstructured":"Montagne R (2012) Memoir traces how cartoonist lost her \u2018Marbles\u2019. NPR Books, 6 November. Available at: https:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/transcript\/transcript.php?storyId=165655611 (accessed 16 January 2019)."},{"key":"bibr36-1363459319846930","unstructured":"National Institute of Mental Health (2016) Bipolar disorder. April. Available at: https:\/\/www.nimh.nih.gov\/health\/topics\/bipolar-disorder\/index.shtml (accessed 2 December 2018)."},{"key":"bibr37-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Our Cancer Year","author":"Pekar H","year":"1994"},{"key":"bibr38-1363459319846930","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/08989575.2014.921989"},{"key":"bibr39-1363459319846930","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.0022-3840.1992.00153.x"},{"key":"bibr40-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Metamaus","author":"Spiegelman A","year":"2011"},{"key":"bibr41-1363459319846930","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1353\/lm.0.0031"},{"key":"bibr42-1363459319846930","volume-title":"The Li\u2019l Depressed Boy","author":"Struble S","year":"2011"},{"key":"bibr43-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Carnet de Voyage","author":"Thompson C","year":"2004"},{"key":"bibr44-1363459319846930","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00489413"},{"issue":"2","key":"bibr45-1363459319846930","volume":"9","author":"Velentzas I","year":"2017","journal-title":"ImageText"},{"key":"bibr46-1363459319846930","unstructured":"Venkatesan S, Peter AM (2015) Life is a game: Visual metaphors in Brian Fies\u2019 mom\u2019s cancer. Hekteon International: A Journal of Medical Humanities. Available at: http:\/\/www.hektoeninternational.org\/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1983 (accessed 19 January 2016)."},{"key":"bibr47-1363459319846930","unstructured":"Wesley M (2012) Rhetoric and visual metaphor: A discursive analysis of American labor graphics. Monica Wesley\u2019s Dissertation Proposal, 5 April. Available at: https:\/\/theheyeve.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/09\/mwesleyproposal_draft2_4-5-2012.pdf (accessed 18 April 2018)."},{"key":"bibr48-1363459319846930","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1353\/mfs.2007.0013"},{"key":"bibr49-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Look Straight Ahead","author":"Will E","year":"2013"},{"key":"bibr50-1363459319846930","volume-title":"Comics and medicine conference","author":"Williams I","year":"2012"},{"key":"bibr51-1363459319846930","first-page":"64","volume-title":"Medicine, Health and the Arts: Approaches to the Medical Humanities","author":"Williams I","year":"2014"},{"key":"bibr52-1363459319846930","unstructured":"Wright E (2012) Interview: Ellen Forney on mania, depression, Michelangelo, and \u2018Marbles\u2019. Comic Books, 28 November. Available at: http:\/\/www.mtv.com\/news\/2627341\/interview-ellen-forney-marbles\/ (accessed 16 January 2019)."}],"container-title":["Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/1363459319846930","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1177\/1363459319846930","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/1363459319846930","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T07:30:57Z","timestamp":1777447857000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/1363459319846930"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2019,5,13]]},"references-count":52,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,1]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1177\/1363459319846930"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/1363459319846930","relation":{},"ISSN":["1363-4593","1461-7196"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1363-4593","type":"print"},{"value":"1461-7196","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2019,5,13]]}}}