1st Edition

Exploring Plural Identity Through Creative–Critical Autoethnography

By Elayne Smith Copyright 2026
256 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book rethinks the relationship between creative practice and critical inquiry in mental health writing. Combining scholarly analysis with lived experience, it develops a distinctive account of dissociative identity disorder, positioning plural subjectivity not only as its subject, but also as its method. The work blends evocative and analytical approaches to explore how writing can embody... Read more

Introduction: Dissociative Identity Disorder

Chapter One: Auto(?)-Biography

Chapter Two: Autoethnography: A Form of Therapy

Chapter Three: Seeking Help: Poaching Words

Chapter Four: Being Diagnosed: Exploring Etymologies

Chapter Five: Shaping From All Sides

Chapter Six: Experiential Data Curation: Creative and Critical Journalling

Chapter Seven: Theoretical Emotions: Poaching Scaffolding

Chapter Eight: Calming Safety Storms: Evocative Metaphorical Processing

Chapter Nine: Accepting Polyphonic Narrators: Pre-Writing

Chapter Ten: Mapping Internal Landscapes: Relational Taxonomies

Conclusion: We/Us Acceptance: Ready to Begin

Biography

Elayne Smith is Honorary Professor at the University of East Anglia. She has published widely on questions of time, identity, and place in premodern literature. As an interdisciplinary scholar, both practice-led and critical researcher, her work and teaching span Literature, Heritage, Health Humanities, Applied Arts, and Creative and Cultural Adaptation Studies.