Schizophrenia Bulletin Advance Access originally published online on October 27, 2006
Schizophrenia Bulletin 2007 33(6):1260-1262; doi:10.1093/schbul/sbl046
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.
Ability and Disability
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It is difficult to explain to people how my schizophrenic illness makes me disabled. I tell people that I am an artist, a nice thing to label myself because it implies a lifestyle of indeterminate work hours and an indeterminate income. In short, no one can tell just by looking how successful or unsuccessful an artist is. And because artists are stereotyped as being a bit odd or fey, the eccentricities of a schizophrenic personality are attributed to a creative, rather than diseased, mind. If a stranger is kindhearted, then they imagine the best and are comfortable in conversation, treating me as an equal. Needling questions about my lifestyle are usually passed by for more exciting topics—the immediate favorite is always "What do you paint?" Few try to ascertain my productivity or scale of talent. Because of my illness, I can only make 4 or 5 paintings a year. And
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed; tel: 1-802-233-6901, e-mail: strawberry2blue@yahoo.com.