BENEATH THE MASK: PERSONALITY DISORDERS IN THE FEMALE CHARACTERS OF OYINKAN BRAITHWAITE’S MY SISTER THE SERIAL KILLER

Abstract

Mental health disorder in Nigeria has often been misperceived and sidelined. As such, people’s view of mental illnesses is the seemingly deafening ones where sufferers see invisible things and/or gesticulate wildly. The burden of the writer with My Sister the serial killer in mind, is to expose the ‘lesser’ types of mental health issues that is often overlooked and its possible causes. This paper, taking a cue from the trauma framework, interrogates the psychological and sociological effects associated with repressed pain. Fulfilling its purpose of functionality alongside aesthetics, it is hoped that through this artistic representation, people may learn to properly manage and possibly avoid issues that threaten our collective existence.