Freud’s dream analysis and graphic medicine: Unveiling the unconscious dimensions of infertility in Paula Knight’s The facts of life (2017)

Through Paula Knight’s graphic memoir on infertility, The facts of life (2017), this paper considers how Freud’s theory of dream analysis can be employed to comprehend the unconscious as it is drawn in comics. The study argues that in the wake of illness, the body may become muted, but the mind remembers, and the memories of suffering from the medical condition become deeply ingrained in the unconscious. This unconscious realm of a patient may surface through slips within the visual imagery of a sufferer’s graphic account of their treatment. By applying Freud’s technique of dream interpretation, particularly its approach to metaphors, the article proposes that since both dreams and comics are narratives in images, interpretative methods used for dreams – specifically, the analysis of metaphorical imagery and the exploration of their meanings – can similarly be employed to uncover the unconscious and repressed thoughts depicted through metaphors in graphic medicine narratives as well. Consequently, the research underscores the notion that graphic medicine is an art that can be read with the tools of psychoanalysis, which in turn may enhance our understanding of dream analysis as a valuable clinical learning tool.