Psychology is an important topic in Autobiography of Red, even when it is not explicit nor centralized. Geryon grows up feeling different, illustrated by the dread of leaving home, vague injustice at school, and his red wings (Carson 36). He prefers imagery to words. In Geryon’s world, colors have influential connotations and his senses intermingle. Others perceive his emotions as morose or overly complex (looking at you, Herakles). As a child, he is derogatorily called stupid, only to later find his calling in philosophical thought.
Something charming about Autobiography is the universality of Geryon’s story. He is embarrassed by desire and has an occasionally dry sense of humor; he struggles to belong but ultimately succeeds. Carson humanizes the monster of Greek mythology, and in doing so makes Geryon’s perspective resonate with neurodiverse individuals. It is done with that tinge of universality—Geryon can be read as expressing dyslexia, synesthesia, anxiety, or autism, to put labels on some topics a psychiatrist might tell him about in 2025. There are myriad interpretations and truths to Geryon’s mental landscape, and no interpretation is incorrect. Personally, I would like to posit that he is displaying obsessive-compulsive disorder.
From the beginning of Autobiography, onwards, so much of Geryon’s behavior is familiar to me. His behavior aligns with some commonly understood OCD symptoms, such as his brain getting “jammed then restarted” when faced with odd numbers (Carson 91) and feeling the need to clean up after others (Carson 102). On a street in Buenos Aires, Geryon reads all the headlines of a newspaper—which could be curiosity in a foreign place or attention to detail, but we are reading it through an OCD lens (Carson 106). In the scene at the tango bar, Carson explicitly states, “Geryon had a bad thought” (101). From my point of view, ‘bad thoughts’ are evocative of intrusive thoughts, which typically feed obsessions and necessitate compulsions. A strong point of evidence is Geryon’s two instances of picking a scab, then his lip. He tries to hide his hands, but his mother notices and says, “Don’t pick at that […] leave it alone and let it heal” (Carson 30). Soon after, they are spending time together and she says, “Don’t pick your lip Geryon let it heal,” implying that this is a pattern (Carson 34). I cannot tell you how many times my mother has fondly batted my fingers away from my lips, so this instantly stood out to me. After all, skin-picking disorder is often classified as a subset of OCD.
Then, the less commonly understood OCD symptoms Geryon displays. His loyalty to both justice and facts could be interpreted as a site of morality-based OCD. He has a rich inner world, which he prefers and cultivates compared to the outer world. His line “you can’t be alive and think about nothing” portrays his worldview as someone prone to overthinking (Carson 103).
I would like to put this story in conversation with OCD experiences, but my chief conclusion is that Autobiography makes space for marginalized people through Geryon’s experiences with ostracization. He feels abnormal not only because of his wings but because of the way he is on the inside, too, and that is highly relatable. In the same way certain pages of the dictionary may be wrinkled and smudged, speaking to years of individuals with questions about their identities, Autobiography is a wrinkled and smudged book where I have searched for and found myself.
Works Cited
Carson, Anne. Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse. Vintage Contemporaries, 1999.
Fama, Jeanne M. “What Is Skin Picking Disorder?” International OCD Foundation, International OCD Foundation, 29 Nov. 2022, https://iocdf.org/about-ocd/related-disorders/skin-picking-disorder/.
“Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: When Unwanted Thoughts or Repetitive Behaviors Take Over.” National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2023, www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-when-unwanted-thoughts-or-repetitive-behaviors-take-over.
I love this interpretation! I was thinking the exact same thing! I also have OCD, so I think sometimes I put that on characters who aren’t written to have OCD, so this post was very validating. I also marked the moment with the odd numbers, as someone who experiences counting OCD. I also really resonated with Geryon’s love of facts and truth, because that is exactly how my morality OCD presents itself. You mention it briefly but I think the moment where Geryon thinks he’s stupid is super notable. I think him being called stupid isn’t just about his true calling being philosophical thought, especially when reading it from a neurodiverse-lens. I know a lot of neurodivergent people are brought up to believe there is something wrong with their minds, which must mean they’re stupid. I think Geryon could be an example of this. Amazing job; thank you for sharing!
I found this post really fascinating. I had clocked Geryon as having some sort of neurodivergence, but I hadn’t quite settled on what yet. I think OCD would make sense with a lot of the points that you made here. I also noted that depression might be another factor in play for Geryon. To me, he seemed very lonely and, angsty is not the right word, just sad overall. The moments of happiness seemed limited and this idea of overwhelming thoughts or feelings, at least to me, is what depression feels like at times. Everything is just too much to process and the burden is too great. This may not be completely grounded in the text, but Geryon’s wings could even be a representation of the sadness or pressure that he carries around on his back. This could be another component to Geryon.
I find it really interesting that you brought up that Geryon’s “loyalty to both justice and facts could be interpreted as a site of morality-based OCD.” I read ahead for Monday and in Fun Home Bechdel talks about how she started to write “I think” in a small font in front of every sentence in her journal for a while because she was focused on the truth and didn’t want to misrepresent what truly happened. It’s interesting to me that Geryon writes this autobiographical story in the way that he does then – especially in terms of dialogue, where it is never quite clear who is speaking. There seems to be this shift then between what Geryon wants to make obvious to the reader and what he obscures for us. It makes me think that he might want to blur the lines between fact and fiction in this narrative.