In my play, Seb Ke Beej - we follow many parallel lives and one of these is that of Betaji, the son battling with a family struggling with changing economic times as well as the internal battles of a largely male household struggling with the shame regarding mental illness.
In my research of this work, I came across the very useful term of the “Identified Patient”. Identified Patient is a term used to refer to that family member, usually a young member of the family, who is identified as the one “acting out” or the “troublemaker”. This is an opposition to seeing the family going through conflict as a whole. These are the ones termed the “blacksheep” or the “scapegoat”, often being the first one to seek therapy or support in a stigma-filled environment. A primary example is parents or spouses bringing their child or other spouse to therapy or even family resolving matters, as the one to be “fixed”.
Becoming an “Identified Patient” can leave deep and detrimental scars on the psyche of the IP. It’s like when you have a lousy day at work and come home to yell at your partner about it, or in even worse cases, blame your partner for the things going on in your life which they have no control over.
Some of these relational topics find home in my play.