Traumatic narrative and medical care: clinical treatment in The Vegetarian.

Abstract

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (fifth edition) (DSM-V) (American Psychiatric Association) provides clinical guidance for psychiatrists on mental disorders. It emphasises both clinical utility and the concern of sociocultural context but does not specify how to balance the need for practicability and the openness of culture. Attempting to address this conflict, I focus on the narration of trauma in Han Kang's The Vegetarian (2015) and discuss how traumatic narrative enables us to understand traumatised patients' mental states. In addition, allowing other family members to take part in the patient's narrative supplements the 'Cultural Formulation Interview' proposed in DSM-V. The analysis of the latest methodology in psychopathology and The Vegetarian demonstrates that while standardised medical care can provide medical guidance to common cases, literature, as a form of expression, is more powerful in presenting the internal life of traumatised people. This study argues that Han's novel has practical meaning in enlightening psychiatrists to refine therapies for psychopathological symptoms.