{"id":2810,"date":"2025-04-16T12:54:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T16:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/?p=2810"},"modified":"2025-04-16T12:54:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T16:54:08","slug":"neurodiverse-recognition-in-autobiography-of-red","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/2025\/04\/16\/neurodiverse-recognition-in-autobiography-of-red\/","title":{"rendered":"Neurodiverse Recognition in Autobiography of Red"},"content":{"rendered":"

Psychology is an important topic in <\/span>Autobiography of Red<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>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\u2019s world, colors have influential connotations and his senses intermingle.\u00a0Others 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.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Something charming about <\/span>Autobiography <\/span><\/i>is the universality of Geryon\u2019s 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\u2014Geryon 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\u2019s mental landscape, and no interpretation is incorrect. Personally, I would like to posit that he is displaying obsessive-compulsive disorder. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From the beginning of <\/span>Autobiography<\/span><\/i>, onwards, so much of Geryon\u2019s behavior is familiar to me. His behavior aligns with some commonly understood OCD symptoms, such as his brain getting \u201cjammed then restarted\u201d when faced with odd numbers (Carson 91) and\u00a0feeling the need to clean up after others (Carson 102). On a street in Buenos Aires, Geryon reads all the headlines of a newspaper\u2014which 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, \u201cGeryon had a bad thought\u201d (101). From my point of view, \u2018bad thoughts\u2019 are evocative of intrusive thoughts, which typically feed obsessions and necessitate compulsions. A strong point of evidence is Geryon\u2019s two instances of picking a scab, then his lip. He tries to hide his hands, but his mother notices and says, \u201cDon\u2019t pick at that […] leave it alone and let it heal\u201d (Carson 30). Soon after, they are spending time together and she says, \u201cDon\u2019t pick your lip Geryon let it heal,\u201d 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.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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 \u201cyou can\u2019t be alive and think about nothing\u201d portrays his worldview as someone prone to overthinking (Carson 103).\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I would like to put this story in conversation with OCD experiences, but my chief conclusion is that <\/span>Autobiography <\/span><\/i>makes space for marginalized people through Geryon\u2019s experiences with ostracization. He feels abnormal not only because of his wings but because of the way he is on the <\/span>inside<\/span><\/i>, 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, <\/span>Autobiography <\/span><\/i>is a wrinkled and smudged book where I have searched for and found myself.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Carson, Anne. <\/span>Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse<\/span><\/i>. Vintage Contemporaries, 1999. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fama, Jeanne M. \u201cWhat Is Skin Picking Disorder?\u201d <\/span>International OCD Foundation<\/span><\/i>, International OCD Foundation, 29 Nov. 2022, <\/span>https:\/\/iocdf.org\/about-ocd\/related-disorders\/skin-picking-disorder\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cObsessive-Compulsive Disorder: When Unwanted Thoughts or Repetitive Behaviors Take Over.\u201d <\/span>National Institute of Mental Health<\/span><\/i>, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2023, <\/span>www.nimh.nih.gov\/health\/publications\/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-when-unwanted-thoughts-or-repetitive-behaviors-take-over<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s world, colors have influential connotations and his senses intermingle.\u00a0Others … Continue reading Neurodiverse Recognition in Autobiography of Red<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5602,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[346812],"tags":[93485,169388,75627,1151,346846],"class_list":["post-2810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2025-class-post","tag-analysis","tag-autobiography-of-red","tag-close-reading","tag-identity","tag-neurodiversity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5602"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}