Searching the Supernatural: Cause and Cure in Mental Illness

In 2020 alone, approximately 21 million adults in the United States suffered from at least one major depressive episode (that’s 8.4% of all American adults). If anything, that number is an underestimate. To make matters worse, treatment options aren’t great. While traditional allopathic relief is available, people regularly turn toward alternative options in treating mental…

The Appeal of a Royal Procession, Diagnosed

What drove people to interrupt royal processions, could it be mental illness? What political purposes could a psychiatric diagnosis serve, could it be more than dismissing a petitioner?

“If It Is an Emergency, Please Call 911”: Framing Mental Health in Syllabi

Trigger warning: discussions of suicidality. Like many students, the first time I had access to therapy and other mental health services was when I studied at a university that had those services on campus (which was, for lots of complicated reasons, not until graduate school). Like many students, I’ve spent about as much time on various mental health waitlists as I have in any kind of treatment.

The Spaces Between

Jac Saorsa, Artist-Residence// Recent health problems have weakened me a little … sapped my energy and left me feeling somewhat detached from the reality I have been living in. But the new reality, the different way of understanding myself has forced me, gently, to consider my own mortality from a deeply personal perspective. Two ways…

Collapsing Work-Life Balance in Covid-19

Amala Poli // The beep of the phone.. thudding heart, fingers clicking away. “Is everything okay?”  Yes, you say. “I just had to reply to this one email. All done now!” You set it aside, eyes flickering in the direction of the screen just a little.

Our Olympian Fables: On difficult personalities

  Steve Server// The Perfectionist.  The Eccentric.  The Paranoiac.  The Loner.  The Mercurial Partner.  The Serial Dater.  The Sociopath.  The Narcissist.  The Coquette.  The Milquetoast. Archetypes of difficult personalities populate our books, our movies, and our TV shows. Where do they come from?  How do we understand their social function? It is worth considering the extent to which these archetypes are borne or at least…