What's Written Down

Abstract

"What's Written Down" explores the lived experience of schizophrenia through Nari, a young Korean American woman in San Francisco whose auditory hallucinations blur the boundaries between Korean and English, past and present. The story examines how intergenerational mental illness intersects with immigrant silence, cultural stigma, and the complexities of medication adherence. It asks what it means to coexist with an illness that one's family could never name, and whether recovery can exist without cure.

Keywords: Auditory Hallucinations; Immigrant Families; Intergenerational Mental Illness; Medication Adherence; Narrative Medicine; Schizophrenia.