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Thesis ID: CBB001561646

Writing the Asylum: Madness, Culture and Subjectivity at the York Retreat, c.1875--c.1940 (2005)

University of York

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Academia.edu

Mental disorders and diseases Psychiatry Psychiatric hospitals 19th century 20th century, early York Retreat

This thesis brings together the archival specificity of an institutional asylum study and more theoretical concerns raised in recent work on the cultural history and the subjective experiences of madness. In order to link these two often contrasted approaches I examine the Retreat as a site of writing. I analyse the textual forms of institutional and medical self-presentation and use the rich holdings of the Retreat to explore the perceptions and self- perceptions of Retreat residents. I analyse different types of source material and move from the institutional towards the personal. I begin by looking at public documents produced by the institution and end by investigating the private letters and diaries of patients. I look at annual reports as a literary form and consider how they construct an image of the Retreat. I examine case notes and doctors letters to explore doctors' writing in relation to professional identity and medical practice. By looking at admissions forms and letters from families to the Retreat I investigate family relationships with patients and the Retreat doctors. The main part of my thesis focuses upon patient writings. In 1982, Dale Peterson called for historians to 'hear from those who, by experience, are more closely connected to the issues---mad people, mental patients themselves'. 1 Since then there have been several anthologised collections of 'mad peoples writings', investigations of patients' letters from asylums and oral history studies. I similarly want to uncover the voice of those considered insane but I adopt an approach that moves away from a homogenous and pathologising view of what has been called 'mad people's writings'. I am not interested in diagnosing insanity, but rather exploring what patients had to say about mental illness, the experience of incarceration, their family life and understandings of society. I also interpret their writings in terms of the different genres, styles and literary tropes that they used.

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Description Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 67/02 (2006): 558. UMI pub. no. C824379.

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001561646/

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