| Title |
Chess & Schizophrenia: Murphy v Mr Endon, Beckett v Bion
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Journal of Medical Humanities, August 2011
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s10912-011-9151-7 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Gary Winship |
| Abstract |
This paper reconvenes Samuel Beckett's psychotherapy with Wilfred Bion during 1934-1936 during which time Beckett's conceived and began writing this second novel, Murphy. Based on Beckett's visits to the Bethlem & Maudsley Hospital and his observation of the male nurses, the climax of Murphy is a chess match between Mr Endon (a male schizophrenic patient) and Murphy (a male psychiatric nurse). The precise notation of the Endon v Murphy chess match tells us that the Beckett intended it to be an exemplar of an anti-match, perhaps a metaphor for the tragedy of being locked into madness. It is also argued that the match offers us insight into Beckett's experience of the process of psychotherapy with Bion. Based on new information from Beckett's nephew and Bion's widow, hypotheses about the long term impact of the Bion-Beckett analysis are advanced as a mutual experience which shaped the lives and later literary output of both men, producing conjoined career writings which continue to offer us stark and sublime condensations of depression, psychosis, and the challenges of therapy and recovery. |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 24 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | 1 | 4% |
| United States | 1 | 4% |
| Poland | 1 | 4% |
| Switzerland | 1 | 4% |
| Unknown | 20 | 83% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 7 | 29% |
| Researcher | 4 | 17% |
| Other | 2 | 8% |
| Student > Bachelor | 2 | 8% |
| Student > Postgraduate | 2 | 8% |
| Other | 3 | 13% |
| Unknown | 4 | 17% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Arts and Humanities | 5 | 21% |
| Psychology | 5 | 21% |
| Social Sciences | 3 | 13% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 2 | 8% |
| Computer Science | 1 | 4% |
| Other | 2 | 8% |
| Unknown | 6 | 25% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 10. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 28 May 2013.
All research outputs
#3,171,856
of 22,653,392 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Medical Humanities
#82
of 414 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#16,661
of 124,036 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Medical Humanities
#3
of 3 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,653,392 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 85th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 414 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.2. This one has done well, scoring higher than 79% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 124,036 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 86% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 3 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one.