Finding Perceval
Finding Perceval is a visual essay that explores what schizophrenia is. It is a response to the book called Perceval’s Narrative, a first-hand account of what it’s like for someone to experience symptoms of schizophrenia in the 18th century. John Thomas Perceval, the writer, spent a huge chunk of his life in lunatic asylums, and spent the remaining part of his life fighting for the rights of mental health patients. The book, Finding Perceval, is a continuation of this fight for the rights of people with schizophrenia and other mental health conditions. It explores the medical analysis of schizophrenia, and then contests this definition, marking it as stigmatizing and damaging. The book includes poetry written by people with schizophrenia, which cannot be read unless the pages are torn apart, signifying the shame and stigma attached to the condition, and the need to understand it. Where is Perceval? He lies in the meaning behind these poetic words, in people who are continuing his fight. Only they can choose how to define the condition, and how to represent themselves. “Where do we go from here? Just ask us.”
