She Herself is a Haunted House: Representing the Experience of Twentieth-Century Postpartum Psychosis

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Postpartum psychosis is a highly-stigmatised maternal mental health condition, with potentially devastating consequences if untreated. She Herself is a Haunted House will explore innovative methodologies in representing the phenomenology of twentieth-century postpartum psychosis, following the scholarly traditions of 'literature and medicine'. Critically it will examine the role of lamiaphobia (a neologism fromthe Latin lamia, 'witch who sucks the blood of children') in rendering postpartum psychosis creatively unspeakable. The project will use novel-writing as academic discourse to bring the Gothic madwomanwitch-monster into dialogue with the insights of contemporary life-writing by women who have experienced postpartum psychosis.