Styx

Description

Styx is a book of narrative non-fiction. It is a very personal story. The subject matter is the stigma associated with mental illness. The style is poetic, confessional, memoir, and documentary. The narrative reflects on mental illness through the metaphors of passage, crossing, and travel. The author explores what it means to suffer the trauma of hospitalization including restraints and forced medication. The book is inspired by Greek mythology of the passage into the underworld as well as the innocence of childhood rhymes teaching children not to be hurt by name-calling when, ironically, that is what medical diagnosis does. The title refers to the river Styx in Greek mythology, which many attempted to cross into Hades. Of those who made it across into the underworld, few returned. The author's name, Khaos, refers to the gender-neutral Greek god, who created the universe from the miasma of nothingness that preceded creation. Shifting between the past, present, and future, the narrative reflects the mechanisms the body has to deal with trauma. While this book is non-fiction, memoir, and poetry, it is inspired by Toni Morrison's development of her protagonist, Sethe, in Beloved. The illness described in the book and the author's professional pursuit of medicine are often at odds with each other due to the taboo nature of the illness and specifically the taboo way in which the author's family and society treat mental illness. As such, the book is a coming-out project with regard to the illness.