Document Type
Social Sciences
Date
2024
Submission Date
May 2024
Abstract
This study aims to explore the element of trauma or shock in weird fiction using H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour out of Space” as the focal text. I am interested in the cognitive estrangement and body disfigurement following encounters with the weird, which in this case would be the meteorite’s Colour, on the characters experiencing it in the story, including the Gardners and Ammi. The goal is to investigate our reactions to being pushed past our thresholds as human beings using analysis of characters, diction, and rhetoric in weird fiction stories and non-fiction patient narratives to better understand how weird literature can help us understand actual neuropsychiatric conditions and expressions. It is important to note that rather than reducing human experiences to a particular psychiatric diagnosis, this study aims to shift the focus of psychology from a strictly biomedical lens focused on recovery to a wider understanding of rationality, irrationality, and the cognitive and physiological ruptures that occur in between. To do so, the paper will elaborate upon the school of trauma psychology, rather than the psychology of the supernatural, to find commonalities between patients’ lived experiences and narratives of fictional characters. Finally, I will explore the potential use of weird literature as a tool to broaden our current understanding of human rationality in medicine, opening the doors to a more capacious approach of assessing individuals suffering from trauma-related neuropsychiatric conditions. I will also introduce narrative therapeutics as one potential application of trauma recovery.
Rights
© The Author(s)
Is Part Of
Auctus
DOI
https://doi.org/10.25886/ndwg-7w94