How should a stigmatized diagnosis be conveyed? How what went wrong is represented in swallow me whole

Abstract

This essay considers the ethical problems raised by a scene of diagnosis presentation in Nate Powell’s graphic novel Swallow Me Whole, in which the patient is not only not engaged by the physician, but also effectively marginalized from the moment that her condition is named and medicalized. Put in the context of the book as a whole and in relationship to the unique affordances of the comics form, however, we see that though the physician made a correct diagnosis, the case did not end well due to the poor delivery of that diagnosis and the lack of support from members of the patient’s extended community.