Taking Control of One's Mental Health through Writing: Hilary Mantel's "Giving Up the Ghost"

Giving Up the Ghost (2003) is the personal memoir of the highly acclaimed British author Hilary Mantel. It details the story of life-long ill health, of seemingly inexplicable pains, of diagnostic failures and ill-advised treatments. I will use this memoir to trace the intricate entanglements of gender-stereotyping in the medical establishment (linked to the gendered history of psychiatry), specific psychiatric interventions and the author’s reactions and coping mechanisms to deal with them. In this context, the nascent feminist movement of the 1970s will be taken into consideration, which provided the means to gradually (and at least partially) question and expose the damaging consequences of these structures, especially for women. I will furthermore focus on writing as a key element for the author’s survival and for keeping her sanity by regaining and keeping control of her own life.