Collection of Mental Health Narratives – History, Concepts, Education, Practice

Edited by Ronja Bodola, PhD; Michelle B. Moore, PsyD; Cody Roi, D.O.

Submit an abstract for a book chapter to be included in the upcoming edited volume Collection of Mental Health Narratives – History, Concepts, Education, Practice.

Narratives are intricately linked to how we interact with the world. We embed our experiences in stories, think about our lives along plotlines, and interpret events based on micronarratives. The social and cultural impact of narratives on our lives have long been acknowledged by scholars in the humanities as well as several mental health fields. More recently, cognitive science and neuroscience have shown how much our mental states are influenced by or facilitated through narratives beyond a conceptual level. Potentially, this research opens opportunities for a better understanding of mental health narratives in their cultural and historical context, for an expansion of narrative research, as well as for a revision of narrative approaches to mental health.

The book connects health humanities scholars with mental health providers, and aims to bring together contributions from various fields, such as narratology, comparative literary studies, media studies, history of medicine, psychology, and psychiatry. It contributes to narratology, narrative medicine, trauma studies, literary and cultural history of mental health, and teaching narratives in mental health education. The aim is to provide an overview as well as novel interpretations, interventions, and integrative approaches by critically assessing the most recent developments in mental health narrative research. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• History of mental health narratives (psychoanalysis, trauma studies, etc.)
• Social Justice and Mental health narratives (legal narratives, postcolonial perspectives etc.)
• Mental Health Narratives across different media (graphic medicine, literature, film etc.)
• Genres of Mental Health Narratives (provider , patient, trauma etc.)
• Teaching Mental Health Narratives
• Practical Applications (case reports, therapeutic interventions, diagnosis etc.)

Please send your 500-word abstract and a brief biosketch to Cody Roi at drcodyroi@gmail.com by July 23, 2021. The collection has been preliminarily accepted into the series “Narrative and Mental Health” (Brill) and is planned for fall of 2022. Manuscripts are due December 31, 2021.