ABSTRACT
Writing an autobiography is a process of constructing identity. In the graphic novel Stitches David Small employs a visual pathography to construct his identity in a manner that lends itself to psychoanalytic criticism. Building on psychoanalytic theories pertinent to the construction of identity and the autobiographical and therapeutic process of writing a pathography, this chapter uses psychoanalytic criticism to extract and interpret specific incidents and visual representations in Stitches. Psychoanalytic criticism can be a deeply meaningful research and interpretation tool, producing and reaffirming meaning, particularly in the case of comics, where the amalgam of image and text speaks to many of the Freudian (particularly but psychoanalytic in general) principles.
