Psychiatric Tales

By Darryl Cunningham

Book Overview

In these moving and sometimes darkly comic tales, Darryl Cunningham takes us into the minds and experiences of people with mental illness-people who might very well be ourselves. Psychiatric Tales draws on Darryl Cunningham's time working in a psychiatric ward to give a reasoned and sympathetic look into the world of mental illness. In each chapter, Cunningham explores a different mental health problem, using evocative imagery to describe the experience of mental illness, both from the point of view of those beset by illness and their friends and relatives. As Cunningham reveals this human experience, he also shows how society's perceptions of and reactions to mental illness perpetuate needless stigma, for example, the myth that schizophrenic people are more likely to commit crimes than non-schizophrenic people. Psychiatric Tales is a groundbreaking graphic work; it deftly demythologizes and destigmatizes the disorders that 26.2 percent of American adults live with every day.

Concluding with a reflection on how mental illness has affected his own life, Darryl Cunningham's Psychiatric Tales is a moving, engaging examination of what is, at its root, the human condition.

Darryl Cunningham is the creator of the Web comics Super-Sam and John-of-the-Night and The Streets of San Diablo. He is a prolific cartoonist, sculptor, and photographer, and lives in Leeds, England. This is his first book.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1608192784
• ISBN13: 9781608192786
• Release Date: February 2011
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

the narrative of the comic takes a front seat

Very good journalistic comic by a former mental health assistant at an acute psychiatric ward. There's a particular focus on suicide, but dementia, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder are also covered. The art is simplistic but expressive, and this is acceptable because the narrative of the comic takes a front seat. Includes several harrowing and poignant accounts of the authors experiences, but also a healthy portion of general educational info. The author takes a sincere stand regarding social justice and the very mentally , and the many ways in which they are still mistreated by society. unrelated ... looking at the picture of a cross section of a skull and brain, I thought : this existence that I and other organic life live is founded upon an unsustainable deception. I feel alive , continuous ... I look at my body, and the bodies of others and I see a whole thing, a person. But the reality is, this existence is founded upon meat, gristle, blood and bone. It is a castle made of sand, a painting in fugitive pigments. The idea of anything arising from this, it's absurd. Flesh is a dying medium for consciousness ... one that ought to be considered obsolete. And yet its an acceptable standard.