Padma Thornlyre: “My psychological constellations include a severe anxiety disorder, persistent depression, and occasional bouts with dissociation and fragmentation, as well as autism in the high-moderate range. In practical terms, this translates into a history of disastrous personal relationships, employment beneath my education, and a marginalized, on-the-brink life, economically, all fueled by low self-esteem and a sense of not belonging. Artistically, however, living with mental illness means I am open to perceptual possibilities that are unusual but rendered malleable by the trickery of language. For instance, having benefited from therapy with a brilliant depth psychologist, I honor dreams as providing much of my content-matter; and having experienced fragmentary states, I sometimes construct new poems from fragments of other works, like collage, creating new types of ‘wholeness.’”
