Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: DSM-V

  • The literary breakdown in Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch

    Carol-Ann Farkas Boston, Massachusetts, United States   The Goldfinch By Carel Fabritius. 1654. Mauritshuis. Public Domain. Wikimedia. I. Diagnostically speaking, the “nervous” or “mental” breakdown is not a thing. The term has never been formally used in psychology, which has long preferred specific, definable categorizations of symptoms and conditions: stress, fatigue, anxiety, depression, trauma.1 And yet…

  • Alden Nowlan, the schizotypal poet

    Shane Neilson Hamilton, Ontario, Canada   I suspect a psychiatrist would have pronounced me a victim of dementia praecox or some such thing1 – Alden Nowlan   Applying a psychiatric diagnosis to the dead is a mug’s game. Alden Albert Nowlan (1933–1983), the critically acclaimed Canadian poet, novelist, and playwright, might agree, if one considered…