Andy Behrman Archive The Poetics of Madness: Reading and Writing Mental Illness Author: Jennifer R. Bernstein | Sep152016 Categories: Reading, Writing No comments In a sense, madness (to use an archaic but attractive term) is a problem of narrative. To put it plainly: mental illness makes it difficult to know just what the heck is going on, or to what extent one’s perceptions of events can be trusted.