Traversing the (In)Visible Territory of Schizophrenia in HOAX Psychosis Blues: An Intersection of Life Writing and Graphic Medicine in Comics

Abstract

ABSTRACT By closely reading Ravi Thornton’s graphic memoir, HOAX Psychosis Blues, as a testament to her brother Rob’s decade-long battle with schizophrenia, this article dwells on the intersection of life writing and graphic medicine in comics to discuss how comics provide an expanded opportunity to visualise the (in)visible territory of schizophrenia. The aim here is first to examine the ways in which Thornton endeavours to contextualise the poetic narrative of Rob’s mental illness through stylistic features of comics; and, second, to illuminate the confessional aspect of Rob’s poetic evocations to understand how schizophrenia imposes practical limitations on the everyday life of the sufferer. Using Foucault’s conceptualisation of clinical gaze and drawing on insights from conceptual metaphor theory, this article examines how a tangible tapestry of visual illustrations, symbols, and metaphors interprets the grave realm of Rob’s thoughts more powerfully and critiques the rigid standards of psychiatric treatment. Ultimately, the article intends to explain how, by illustrating the metamorphosis of Rob’s body into a butterfly, the narrative provides a sense of hope and vitality for other sufferers that medical reasoning fails to do.