„Mind Your Head!” – Experience of the Illness in Public Narrations of Psychiatric Patients

The article explores the problem of reconstructing the experience of illness based on the narratives of people with mental disease. The research used the method of biographical interviews. The material consists of 16 biographical narratives of Dr J. Babiński Clinical Hospital patients. Their accounts form a coherent image of suffering caused by the illness included experiences preceding the disease, somatic symptoms, admission, and stay in the hospital. Thanks to the collected narratives, we have the opportunity to learn about the subjective experiences from the patient’s perspective, which is not present in the literature on psychopathology.