Grayson Perry
In 1992 I created a graphic novel called Cycle of Violence. Reading it now, the initially striking thing is that it predicts the rise of cycling culture in the UK and a working-class boy called Bradley winning the Tour de France. But it mainly reflected the state of my mind at the time — it contained a lot of perverted sex, dysfunctional parenting and mercilessly mocked the process of psychotherapy.
In 1992 our daughter Flo had just been born and my wife Philippa seemed to have read every parenting book under the sun. Our house was full of the jargon and ideas associated with psychotherapy. Words and phrases like ‘transference’, ‘-projection’, ‘anger issues’ and ‘persecutor/victim’ became commonplace, usually (justifiably) describing my behaviour. I think I channelled my irritation about this into Cycle of Violence.
In the following years Philippa began training to become a therapist and my aversion to psychotherapy matured. It all felt terribly earnest, verging on the hippy/spiritual, a particular bugbear of mine.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in