Displaced metaphor as madness? A critical-clinical study of schizophrenia in Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange

Abstract

No other trope captures the perceived complexity of schizophrenia and the epistemological, clinical, ethical and phenomenological aporias it poses than the phrase “the sublime object of psychiatry” (Angela Woods). The same trope of “sublimity” can be extended to the field of modern and contemporary drama where schizophrenia has not only proved a recurring thematic preoccupation, but has persistently been utilized as a paradigmatic case for illustrating the limits of social-cultural, moral, existential, and psychological crisis. “Sublimity”, however, instigates further complications and problems by mystifying the nature and experience of schizophrenia rather than contributing to the development of a clearer account of it. A conspicuous case of the critique of this treatment of schizophrenia in terms of the “sublime” can be found in Penhall’s two dramatic works: Some Voices (1993) and Blue/Orange (2000). What distinguishes Penhall’s treatment of schizophrenia, this essay will argue, are two salient features: its method (the critical-clinical) and its simultaneously symptomatic and symptomatological treatment of schizophrenia. What further distinguishes Penhall’s critical depiction of schizophrenia is his insistence that the cultural is as crucial as the clinical in the experience, representation, and perception of schizophrenia. This is attested by his acute inclusion of such crucial issues as race, class, discourse, and gender as highly determining elements in the experience, perceptions and diagnosis of schizophrenia. Taking Blue/Orange as its focal point, and conjoining a critical-clinical approach (Deleuze) with the insights derived from psychoanalysis as well as cultural anthropology and sociology of race, this essay will demonstrate how Blue-Orange presents a critical-clinical account of the limits of various discursively-determined treatments of schizophrenia (including both psychiatry and anti-psychiatry) thereby accentuating the necessity of developing more holistic method in the cultural and clinical treatments of schizophrenia.

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