Oh yes--I mean, I think a real mental illness is a great subject for a story, just as anything to happens to a person is. I love Kay Redfield Jamison's autobiography about her life being bipolar--it's completely fascinating just as the story of this one person's experience.
But then there's other times when people use it as a reason not to explore the character. Like with Jamison it's not just that she's bipolar, you know who she was before, how the condition manifests in her, what her relationship with it is. It's a big part of who she is but it isn't who she is entirely.
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Date: 2004-08-03 07:55 pm (UTC)But then there's other times when people use it as a reason not to explore the character. Like with Jamison it's not just that she's bipolar, you know who she was before, how the condition manifests in her, what her relationship with it is. It's a big part of who she is but it isn't who she is entirely.