Depersonalization And Creative Writing

Depersonalization and Creative Writing: Unreal City explores the common psychological symptom of depersonalization, its influence on literature and the insights it can provide into the writing process. Depersonalization is a distressing symptom in which sufferers feel detached from their own selves and the world. Often associated with psychological disorders, it can also affect healthy people at times of stress. Beginning with a first-hand account of the experience, the book goes on to argue that many well-known literary texts, including Camus’s The Outsider and Sartre’s Nausea, evoke a similar psychological state. It shows how a concept of depersonalized writing can be found in the work of literary theorists from widely different traditions, including T.S. Eliot, Roland Barthes and Viktor Shklovsky. Finally, it maintains that creative writers can make use of the lessons learned from a study of depersonalization to arrive at a deeper understanding of writing. Given this knowledge, the controversial writing teacher’s maxim show, don’t tell, so often misapplied or misunderstood, can be repurposed as a practical instruction for taking students’ writing to a new level of sophistication and wisdom.

Write Yourself is the ideal introduction to how to facilitate groups and individuals in finding inspiration for their creative personal writing voices. This book explains how and why writing is such an illuminative, healing, and cathartic process, and provides many practical exercises that encourage the exploration of emotions, memories and experiences. Chapters cover the use of writing with a variety of client groups, including those made up of people suffering from depression, anxiety or health problems, and advice is given both on running and participating in successful writing groups. This book will be an invaluable resource for professionals working across the health, social care and caring professions, arts therapists and for everyone interested in the therapeutic qualities of creative writing.

As the online world of creative writing teaching, learning, and collaborating grows in popularity and necessity, this book explores the challenges and unique benefits of teaching creative writing online. This collection highlights expert voices who have taught creative writing effectively in the online environment, to broaden the conversation regarding online education in the discipline, and to provide clarity for English and writing departments interested in expanding their offerings to include online creative writing courses but doing so in a way that serves students and the discipline appropriately. Interesting as it is useful, Theories and Strategies for Teaching Creative Writing Online offers a contribution to creative writing scholarship and begins a vibrant discussion specifically regarding effectiveness of online education in the discipline.

The Psychology of Creative Writing takes a scholarly, psychological look at multiple aspects of creative writing, including the creative writer as a person, the text itself, the creative process, the writer's development, the link between creative writing and mental illness, the personality traits of comedy and screen writers, and how to teach creative writing. This book will appeal to psychologists interested in creativity, writers who want to understand more about the magic behind their talents, and educated laypeople who enjoy reading, writing, or both. From scholars to bloggers to artists, The Psychology of Creative Writing has something for everyone.

Do you suffer from physical pain relating to your writing life? Are you struggling with back pain, weight gain related to sedentary working, anxiety, depression, sleep problems, neck pain, eye strain, stress, loneliness, digestive issues, or Repetitive Strain Injury? These are the most common issues reported by writers and if you struggle with any of them, you are not alone. Writing is not a physically healthy job, but if you want a long-term writing career, then you need to look after your body. I've been through my own pain journey over the last six years. I used to get crippling migraines that sent me to a dark room, and back pain so bad that I couldn't sleep, as well as stress levels so high that I wasn't able to breathe normally. Now, my back pain, migraines and RSI have almost gone completely, and I manage my writing life in a far healthier way than ever before. I share my personal journey and insights with you in this book. My co-author is Dr Euan Lawson, who shares his insights into how we can reduce pain, improve health and build a writing career for the long term. The book covers: Introduction and survey results from 1200 writers 7 Reasons why writing is great for your health Part 1: The Unhealthy Writer Stress, anxiety, burnout Back, neck and shoulder pain Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) A personal journey to a pain-free back Writing with chronic pain Sedentary life and inactivity Sleep problems/ insomnia Eye strain, headaches, and migraine A personal story of headaches and migraine Loneliness and isolation Weight gain or weight loss Joanna's Letter to Sugar Digestive issues and IBS A personal journey through IBS with FODMAP Mood and mental health Riding the Waves: Writing with depression Alcohol - the good, the bad, and the ugly Coffee and caffeine Supplements, substances, and nootropics Part 2: The Healthy Writer Improve your workspace Sort out your sleep Sort out your diet From fat to fit Sort out your back Lessons learned about writing from yoga How to use dictation for a healthier writing life The active writer mindset Strategies for the sofa-bound The active writer: Three golden rules The running writer: Three rookie mistakes Lessons learned about writing from walking a double ultra-marathon Find a community Build wellbeing with mindfulness Develop healthy habits for the long-term Conclusion: It's your turn. Choose life! It's time to be a healthy writer!

Writing is a means of making sense of experience, and of arriving at a deeper understanding of the self. The use of creative writing therapeutically can complement verbal discussions, and offers a cost- and time-effective way of extending support to depressed or psychologically distressed patients. Suitable both for health-care professionals who wish to implement therapeutic writing with their patients, and for those wishing to start writing creatively in order to help themselves, The Therapeutic Potential of Creative Writing provides practical, well tried and tested suggestions for beginning to write and for developing writing further. It includes ideas for writing individually and for directing groups, and explores journal writing, poetry, fiction, autobiography and writing out trauma, with established writers and those who have taken up writing for private enjoyment.

"Everything feels unreal to me, like a dream...I feel detached, like a stranger to myself." These are quotes from actual people, experiencing something they don't understand. What they are saying is being heard by friends, families, and physicians today more than ever before. They do not simply suffer from anxiety, or depression, and they are not schizophrenic. They have found themselves trapped in a very real and singular disorder, yet few even know its name. Their enigmatic state of mind has been studied for more than 100 years, but only recently has it become clear how prevalent and how distinctive it really is. The condition is called Depersonalization Disorder, and Feeling Unreal is the first book to reveal what it's all about. This important volume explores not only Depersonalization, but the philosophical and literary implications of selflessness as well, while providing the latest research, possible treatments, and ways to live and thrive when life seems "unreal." For those who still believe that such experiences are merely part of something else, that depersonalization is just a symptom and not a disorder in its own right, Feeling Unreal presents compelling evidence to the contrary. This book provides long-awaited answers for people suffering from Depersonalization Disorder and their loved ones, for mental health professionals, and for all students of the condition, while serving as a wake up call to the medical community at large.

What if writer's block became your most precious teacher? An empowering new process for writers who struggle with the seemingly insurmountable middle of a project, from the author of Writing Begins with the Breath. Writer’s block. If you are a writer, you know it can be a haunting, terrifying force—a wolf at the door, a vast conspiracy, something that keeps you up at night, spinning your wheels, going nowhere. But what if we’ve been thinking about writer’s block all wrong? What if, by paying attention to its qualities and inquiring into its hidden gifts, we can release that power? On Being Stuck is an empowering guide to working with your blocks and finding the friend within the beast. Using deep inquiry, writing prompts, body and breath exercises, and a range of interdisciplinary approaches,On Being Stuck will help you uncover the gifts hidden within your creative blocks, while also deepening your relationship to your work and reawakening your creative process.

Women Who Wrote for Their Lives: The Healing Power of Creative Writing was inspired by author Janet Frame, the late New Zealand writer who penned novels, poetry, and short stories, as well as her own powerful autobiography. Frame’s dramatic personal history included years of psychiatric hospitalisation. Born in 1924, Frame passed away in 2004. During her early life, patients with severe mental health issues received what today would be considered grim treatment. Days before the author was scheduled for a lobotomy, the procedure was cancelled when her first book of short stories won a national literary prize. Author and retired psychiatrist Kenneth Bragan realizes how powerful writing can be as a therapeutic tool. He says, “Starting with Janet Frame’s remarkable recovery to become a writer of international repute after having spent many years in mental hospitals, I went on to find four other well-known writers who had to keep mental suffering at bay through writing.” He explores The Healing Power of Creative Writing from a psychiatric perspective in his book. “[This book] is a stunning exploration of the intersection of mental health and the arts. Author Kenneth Bragan presents a rigorous analysis of the work and lives of five eminent female authors, demonstrating how their creative processes both reflected and helped alleviate the struggles of their mental illnesses. From Frame to Woolf to du Maurier, Bragan argues…that literary history presents us with unique strategies for betterment…allowing agency and expression to guide us therapeutically to a better understanding of the self… [it is] essential reading for anyone looking for a creative approach to betterment.” – Charles Asher, reviewer

Writing Well is a practical handbook of creative writing exercises which forms the basis of an indirect, nonconfrontational approach specifically intended for therapeutic use within the mental health field. Although people with emotional or psychological problems can find creative writing particularly difficult and unsettling, when writing courses are sensitively designed they are known to be of therapeutic benefit to people with mental health problems. The exercises are taken from the authors' successful practice with groups of people from a range of backgrounds in a variety of settings. The book is structured to be accessible and easy to use. The warm-ups and main exercises are organised by themes, such as positive memories, imagined worlds, changes and painful feelings. Guidelines are given for developing and adapting the exercises and practical suggestions for materials are included in the appendix. This volume will be an invaluable practical resource and imaginative inspiration for creative writing tutors and mental health professionals.