View source for My Nervous Breakdown

This piece takes us inside the brain and mind of a speaker in the midst of a nervous breakdown. Bigelow roughly maps the initial four parts of the poem on a superior view of a human brain: “My Brain Is” on the frontal lobes, “What My Therapist Said” on the parietal lobes, “The Metaphor Room” on the temporal lobes, and “How to Dream a Suicide” on the occipital lobes. The final section (verse? movement?) focuses on different types of treatment: religion, medication, therapy, and exercise. Overall, the work is richly layered with video clips, language, sound, and minimalist interactivity to examine the speaker’s mindset as a biological, psychological, and social subject. The combination of fact, dream imagery, and creative exploration of suicide all showcase Bigelow’s expert hand in crafting blended metaphors and balancing the tone with delicately understated humor.

(Source: Leonardo Flores, I ♥ E-Poetry)