Diagnostic Fictions

Beginning with a case in Part 1 of this article, I illustrate a key difference between the person who comes to therapy and the figure(s) who come for therapy. In Part 2, I describe some features of a literary approach that attend to this difference and animate diagnostic descriptions with images and stories found in literature. Using Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and drawing on my rereading of her tale, I demonstrate in Part 3 how the character of Victor Frankenstein and his story vividly personify and enrich the DSM category of narcissistic personality disorder. This approach does not reduce Victor Frankenstein and his story to the diagnosis; it magnifies the diagnostic category through the lens of his image and his story.