Gem Hutchens

Jessie the Galaxy Gem Hutchens

In April 2014, after a 911 call by Jessie, the 29 year-old married mother of an 18-month-old daughter is sent to an isolation room of the Psychiatric Unit of Richmond Hospital. She is engaging in the paranoia delusion that her husband is a murderer, and she is having difficulties discerning the reality of photos and video works published by a performance artist, James, who was her former classmate. After being admitted, the doctor diagnoses Jessie with schizophrenia. Although the hospital discharges her after a few weeks, she ends up staying for another two weeks and opting for injections rather than oral medication.




The story brings together the shared realities of Jessie and her fellow patients through a series of group portraits that serve as a universal mirror to herself. Meng is Jessie's roommate; she is addiction to candy and never speaks. Zen is a female biology professor who gives Jessie a brief life lesson and inspires her to seek a divorce. Ikhlas is a Muslim boy with whom Jessie gets along well; a year later she finds out (via Facebook) that he has died. Dasa is a seventyish man, intent on lewd act with her; ultimately, he is discharged earlier than her. Brian is an aggressive self-involved sociopath who regularly tries to escape and is caught and returned.




This often-surreal memoir accounts for how one's sanity addresses and overcomes madness such as schizophrenia. Jessie voluntarily ceases the pills and lies to her doctor for more than a year and achieves recovery. She finds out just how thin the line is between the mania and depression and explores the trigger and the motive to get healed.