We examine excerpts from Siri Hustvedt’s novel, The Blindfold, and from Joan Didion’s essay, In Bed, for the perspectives they offer on what people experience when migraines strike them. We discuss how Hustvedt’s and Didion’s renderings of migraines adds to classic biomedical descriptions, and consider the implications of migraine prevalence on the degree of suffering, functioning, and health care consumption. We muse about how these literary texts and others like them can be applied in helping people who suffer migraines and in helping people who care for them.
Additional background on the excerpts we cover, and excerpts from other books describing the effects of migraine are in Russell Teagarden’s blog, According to the Arts. An expanded analysis of the physical effects of migraine as depicted in The Blindfold can also be found on the blog here.
Some migraine prevalence data available from open-source publications are here and here.
Bibliographic information:
The Blindfold, Siri Hustvedt, Picador, New York, 1992
In Bed: In The White Album, Joan Didion, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1979
Thanks to Alexis Teagarden, PhD, for bringing Joan Didion's essay to our attention.
Executive producer: Anne Bentley
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Send us comments and questions at: russell.teagarden@theclinicandtheperson.com.