This book explores the potential of specific photographic images for reflecting on experiences of mental disorders. Instead of looking at photographs of (people suffering from) mental disorders, this volume aspires to comprehend the complexities of such conditions through photographic lexicons, metaphors, and practices. For this book, a mental disorder is not to be seen as a dysfunction or impairment, but a state in which the sustaining balance of stable and unstable mind is unsettled, which may induce mental/bodily disturbances. The term “psychosomatic” refers to the interaction of the mind (psyche) with the body (soma); it refers to their co-dependence. By the term “Psychosomatic Imagery” this volume refers to a distinctive trope of photographic images that deal with the body-mind interaction during the states of mental disorders. This novel theoretical framework in photography theory instigates critical discussions about the experiences of mental disorders visualized as disturbed corporeal and mental perceptions of the world. While the introduction of the volume unpacks and assesses the applications of photography in mental disorder studies from theoretical and historical perspectives, the chapters focus on specific cases of Psychosomatic Imagery in contemporary photography. Those cases include, but are not limited to: PTSD, hysteria, paranoia, psychosis, bipolar disorder, and Hikikomori.
Author(s): Ali Shobeiri, Helen Westgeest
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 209
City: Cham
Acknowledgments
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
Chapter 1: Introduction
Photography and Mental Disorders: Then and Now
Psychosomatic Imagery
Structure of the Book
References
Part I: Secluded Subjects and Sociable Objects
Chapter 2: The Room Is the World: Reflecting on the Lived Life of Hikikomori Through Photography
Hikikomori: A Radical Social Withdrawal
The Lived Place of Hikikomori
The Lived Time of Hikikomori
References
Chapter 3: Objects as Friends: Depression and Photography in the Work of Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys
Depression in de Gruyter and Thys’ Videos
Photography and Still Life in de Gruyter and Thys’ Photographic Work
References
Part II: Psychosomatic Disruptions and Distortions
Chapter 4: Traces of Absence: the (Im)Possibility of Representing the Phantom Limb
Representing the Invisible
After Image
Ambiguous Traces
Traces of Existence
Traces of Memory
References
Chapter 5: “Let Me Die, or I’ll Perish”: Dissolution and Resurrection Through the Photographic Double
Staging the Photographic Double
Acknowledging the Symptomatic Gaze
References
Chapter 6: Ghost Feelings and Distortion: Redefining Dis-Order
Rhythms and Relations
The Frame, the Photograph, and the Trap
Disarticulation, Dis-order, and the Integrated Reject
References
Part III: Traversing Hysteria and Bipolar Disorder
Chapter 7: Somatic Signals: Nicole Jolicoeur’s Aura Hysterica
The Perverse Reconfigurations of Aura Hysterica
Somatic Language Against Projectile Representation
Photography and Hysteria
Aura Hysterica as a Détournement of Typology
Somatic Semiotics
References
Chapter 8: Buried Images, Ritual Selves: Looking at South Asian Mental Health in Gauri Gill’s Acts of Appearance
Perspectives on Bipolar Disorder
My Friend Has Changed: Image and In/Visibility
Adivasi Masks: Thresholds of Spatiality/Temporality
Coda
References
Part IV: Images Mediating Between Two Worlds
Chapter 9: Photographic Visions of Mentally Disordered Perceptual Experiences: Disruptions in Zellweger’s and Simonutti’s Psychosomatic Imagery
Photographic and Deviating Perceptions as Theoretical Framework
The Photograph as Reflection of Multiple Perceptual Experiences
The Photograph as a Veil Between Two Worlds
Disturbed Interaction Due to Disruptive Frames
References
Chapter 10: Selfies as “Control Pictures”: Mastering Fearful Psychosomatic Images Through the Photo Camera
Mastering the World Behind Our Backs
Recording of Corpses and the Metaphor of Death in Photography Theory
Necrophiliac Images and Dark Selfies
A Psychosomatic Fearful Image Turned into a Dark Selfie as Control Picture
References
Index
