Lee Murray is a New Zealand author, daughter of a New Zealand-born Chinese mother and a Kiwi-European father. I only mention this because her parents, and her upbringing, are relevant to her simultaneously personal and analytical essay, “The Curse of Culture and Context: Reflections of Madness in Speculative Fiction.” Murray uses examples from Korean, Chinese, Black American, Native American, and Māori writers to think about representations of mental health in speculative fiction. She looks at the connections between personal experiences, cultural expectations, and history, and how these things impact on - indeed, directly contribute to - a person’s mental health.
The essay contains, as may be apparent, explicit discussion of mental illness and the sometimes unhelpful reactions folks can experience. If this is something you’re not in the right space to read, come back to it later.