Diagnostic Rhythms: Empathy and Pathology in Greenâs My Alien Self

Sandra Marzinkowski

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Chapter 15 Diagnostic Rhythms: Empathy and Pathology in Greenâs My Alien Self

In: The Cultural Heritage of Psychiatry and Its Literary Transformations

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Sandra Marzinkowski

Sandra Marzinkowski
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 326â347

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004745247_017

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Abstract

Modern-day psychiatric discourse is governed by a âbiologico-moralâ logic that can be traced back to the turn to the age of positivism, as famously described by Foucault. This logic, ambiguous as to whether a person diagnosed with a disorder is âmadâ or âbadâ, confines individuals with mental distress in a double bind between biological predetermination and moral agency. This epistemic gridlock is epitomised by diagnostic catalogues, which reduce the complexity of human experience to a set of ready-made and frequently stigmatising categories. In my analysis of Amanda Greenâs memoir My Alien Self: My Journey Back to Me (2012), I suggest that the dimension of phenomenology as foregrounded in the narration invites readers to adopt an empathetic stance towards the autodiegetic narrator. Unlike psychopathology, phenomenology is a descriptive rather than categorical approach to understanding experience. It diverges from the diagnostic approach, which pigeonholes perception and behaviour as either âsaneâ or âmentally illâ. The foregrounding of phenomenology may thus serve to counteract the stigmatising diagnostic heritage of psychopathology. To explain the role of phenomenology in my argument, I draw on the notion of rhythm and Thomas Ogdenâs three modes of experience. The paradigmatic pathologiser can be argued to be cognitively congruent with the paranoid-schizoid mode. In this mode, cognition applies an analytical lens that rigidly associates a multitude of (possibly unrelated) properties with one single phenomenon. In the case of the pathologiser, this means interpreting all of a clientâs behaviours as symptomatic of an underlying disorder. Narratives that focus on diagnoses generally cue readers to take up the same cognitive mode as a pathologiser. I argue that while Greenâs memoir initially evokes the paranoid-schizoid mode through the diagnostic focus, it counterbalances this mode over the course of the narrative by foregrounding rhythmicity. The latter characterises the autistic-contiguous mode, a sensory way of experiencing that underlies all human experience and can therefore be understood by readers from a variety of backgrounds. I propose that the evocation of rhythmicity additionally steers readers into the direction of the depressive mode and that reaching a narrative balance between all three modes may serve to depathologise individuals with mental suffering.

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The Cultural Heritage of Psychiatry and Its Literary Transformations

Middle Ages to the Present

Series:Â Narratives and Mental Health, Volume: 4

Cover The Cultural Heritage of Psychiatry and Its Literary Transformations

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004745247

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 13 Nov 2025

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Chapter 15 Diagnostic Rhythms: Empathy and Pathology in Greenâs My Alien Self

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The Cultural Heritage of Psychiatry and Its Literary Transformations

Middle Ages to the Present

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Chapter 15 Diagnostic Rhythms: Empathy and Pathology in Greenâs My Alien Self