Mental Illness In Confessional Poetry

Not only concerns about their personal life, the confessional poetry also side with the individual against the norms of society. Many confessional poetry contains a complex tension between a neurotic individual and the high society. It seems an examination of the tortured psyche of the prototypical modern man who is neurotic and insightful. In his Creating Mental Illness, Alaan V. Horwitz argues that the current conceptions of mental illness as a disease fit only a small number of serious psychological conditions and that most conditions currently regarded as mental illness are cultural constructions, normal reactions to stressful social circumstances, or simply forms of deviant behavior. The social background should not be avoided in analyzing confessional poetry. Faching a rapidly

The abnormal personality is considered not so much genetically determined or organically induced as a social norm deviated personality. In Michael T. Walker’s article, “the social construction of mental illness and its implications for the recovery model”, social constructionism as been regarded as an counterpoint to medicine’s largely deterministic approaches to disease and illness. Walker finds that some illnesses are particularly embedded with cultural meaning, all illnesses are socially constructed at the experiential level, and medical knowledge about illness and disease is not necessarily given by nature but is constructed and developed by claims-makers and interested parties. This section also endeavours to view conrehensively the Hospital Poems of confessional poets. In light of Foucauldian theory on discipline and power execution, this section unveils the domination of patriarchy over patient’s body, identity and discourse right. The hospital poems also combine the contemplation about modern medical system and sexual