“The Monkey Palace” – Towards an understanding of the patient’s voice in the treatment of mental illness in the asylum era

Authors

  • Sarah Kirkegaard Jensen
  • Signe Düring
  • Line Keller Jensen
  • Klaus Nielsen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/pl.v44i1.141127

Keywords:

“The patient’s view”, history of psychiatry, conflict, suffering

Abstract

The history of psychiatry is predominantly written and understood through the psychiatrist’s perspective. The purpose of this article is to critically discuss this narrative through the perspective of the patient in the asylum era. Partly through theoretical work with a view to an understanding of the patient’s voice via Roy Porter and Jacques Rancière, and partly through an empirical analysis based on censored letters from patients hospitalised at ‘Jydske Asyl’, the first official psychiatric hospital in Denmark. The patient’s voice articulates a fundamental conflictual dynamic between those who were part of the social order of psychiatry – including psychiatrists, nurses, and other employees – and the patients, who, in the letters, speak from an illegitimate position outside this order. In the article, this conflictual dynamic is understood as a perceived disagreement and lack of recognition of oneself as a sufferer in the encounter with a new identity as a patient after hospitalisation in the asylum era.

References

Andersen, A.J.W. & Larsen, I.B. (2012). Hell on earth: Textual reflections on the experience of mental illness. Journal of Mental Health, 21(2), 174-181. https://doi.org/10.3109/09638237.2012.667885.

Armstrong, D. (1984). The patient’s view. Social Science and Medicine, 18, 737-744. https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(84)90099-6.

Bacopoulos-Viau, A. & Fauvel, A. (2016). The Patient’s turn. Roy Porter and psychiatry’s tales, thirty years on. Medical History, 60(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1017/mdh.2015.65.

Blomberg, W. (2002). Galskapens hus – utskilling og internering i Norge 1550-1850. Universitetsforlaget.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.

Bolt, M. (2016). På råbeafstand af marxismen. Et bidrag til kritik af kritikken af kritikken (Latour, Foucault, Marx). Kultur & klasse, 44(122), 143-180. https://doi.org/10.7146/kok.v44i122.25051.

Casell, E.J. (2004). The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195156164.001.0001.

Chin-Yee, B., Diaz, P., Bryden, P., Soklaridis, S. & Kupe, A. (2020). From hermeneutics to heteroglossia: ”The patient’s view” revisited. Journal of Medical Humanities, 46, 464-473. https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2019-011724.

Condrau, F. (2007). The patient’s view meets the clinical gaze. Social History of Medicine, 20(3), 525-540. https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkm076.

Foucault, M. (1989), ”Sorcery and madness”. I: S. Lotringer (red.), Foucault Live. Collected Interviews (1966-84) [first published in 1976 (s. 200-203). Semiotext(e).

Foucault, M. (2000). The Subject and Power. I: J.D. Faubion (red.), Michel Foucault: Power (3. udg., s. 326-348). The New Press.

Foucault, M. (2003). January 15, 1975. I: V. Marchetti, A. Salomoni, F. Ewald & A. Fontana (red.), Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France 1974-1975 (s. 31-52). Verso.

Fredwall, T.E. & Larsen, I.B. (2019). Textbook descriptions of people with psychosis – some ethical aspects. Nursing Ethics, 26(5), 1554-1565. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733017753742.

Gallagher, M. (2021). Making public their use of history: Reflections on the history of collective action by psychiatric patients, the oor mad history project and survivors history group. I: R. Ellis, S. Kendal & S.J. Taylor (red.), Voices in the History of Madness, Mental Health in Historical Perspective (s. 359-381). Palgrave-Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69559-0_17.

Gradenwitz, M. (1985). Knud Pontopidan og patienterne. Etatsraaden, Sypigen, Amalie Skram, Grevinden. Akademisk Forlag.

Gudmand-Høyer, M.T. (2013). Stemningssindssygdommenes historie i det 19. århundrede: Omtydningen af melankolien og manien som bipolære stemningslidelser i dansk sammenhæng under hensyn til dannelsen af det moderne følelseslivs relative autonomi. En problematiserings- og erfaringsanalytisk undersøgelse. Copenhagen Business School [Phd]. Ph.d. Serie No. 22.

Hallager, F.K. (1902). Jubilæumsskrift.

Hamre, B. (1995). Wilhelm Frydendahl – en modig patient. Danmarks første psykiatriske patientklage anno 1829 i en Foucault’sk belysning. Social Kritik, 40-41, 24-41.

Helweg, H. (1915). Sindsygevæsenets udvikling i Danmark. Medicinsk boghandel.

Hübertz, J.R. (1843). Om Daarevæsenets Indretning i Danmark. Andre. Fred. Høsts Forlag.

Jensen, M.L. (1986). Fra landsbytosse til psykiatrisk patient. Holdningsændringer overfor galskaben og behandlingen af gale i Danmark 1700-1900. Den Jyske Historiker, 37 (det skrevne ord i historien), 24-40.

Kelstrup, A. (1983). Galskab, Psykiatri, Galebevægelse – en skitse af galskabens og psykiatriens historie. Temanummer af Amalie.

Martinsen, K. (2005). At bo på sygehus og erfare arkitektur. I: K. Larsen (red.), Arkitektur, krop og læring (s. 131-159). Hans Reitzels Forlag.

Møllerhøj, J. (2004). Det 19. århundredes danske psykiatri. En historiografisk oversigt. Bibliotek for læger, 196, 47-73.

Møllerhøj, J. (2008). Sindssygdom, dårevæsen og videnskab. Asyltiden 1850-1920. I: J.V. Kragh (red.), Psykiatriens historie i Danmark (s. 88-119). Hans Reitzels Forlag.

Porter, R. (1985). The patient’s view. Doing medical history from below. Theory and Society, 14, 175-98. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00157532.

Porter, R. (1990). Foucault’s Great Confinement. History of Human Sciences, Vol. 3 (1), 47-54. https://doi.org/10.1177/095269519000300107.

Porter, R. (1997). Lifeline. Lancet, 350, Nov. 8, 1410. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(05)65199-9.

Porter R. (1999). A Social History of Madness: Stories of the Insane. Phoenix Giant.

Raffnsøe, S., Gudmand-Høyer, M.M. &Thaning, S. (2008). Foucault. Samfundslitteratur.

Rancière, J. (1995) Disagreement and Philosophy. University of Michigan Press.

Rancière, J. & Panagia, D. (2000). Dissenting words: A conversation with Jacques Rancière. Diacritics, 30(2), 113-126. https://doi.org/10.1353/dia.2000.0016.

Rose, D. (2022). Mad Knowledges and User-Led Research. Palgrave/MacMillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07551-3.

Rosenberg, R. (2016). Psykiatriens grundlag. Historie, filosofi og videnskab. Aarhus Universitetsforlag.

Scull, A.T. (1979). Moral treatment reconsidered: Some sociological comments on an episode in the history of british psychiatry. Psychological Medicine, 9, 421-428. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291700031962.

Scull, A.T. (1995). Psykiatri og social kontrol og i det nittende og tyvende århundrede. En kritisk psykiatri-historisk tour de force: fra simpel indespærring over den psykiatriske anstalt til de store udslusninger. Den medicinske psykiatri anskuet ud fra en social kontrol dimension. Social Kritik, 40-41, 4-23.

Selmer, H. (1846). Almindelige Grundsætninger for Daarevæsnets Indretning Som fast Resultat af Videnskab og Erfaring fremstillet for det større Publicum. S. Trier.

Skram, A. (2016). Professor Hieronimus. Gyldendal (e-bog).

Skålevåg, S.A. (2000). En sykdom tar form. Om psykiatri og konstruksjonen av sinnssykdom i asylets æra, Historisk Tidsskrift, 79, 352-373.

Svenaeus, F. (2017). The phenomenology of suffering in medicine and bioethics, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, 35(6). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11017-014-9315-3.

Thompson, E.P. (2013[1963]). The Making of the English Working Class. Penguin Books Ltd.

Vestergaard, P. (2018). Den moderne psykiatris historie. Et essay om sindslidende i velfærdsstaten. Aarhus Universitetsforlag. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv34wmp6c.

Vestergaard, P. (2021). Den klassiske psykiatris historie. Pioneren Harald Selmer og psykiatriens fødsel i Danmark. Aarhus Universitetsforlag. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv34wmssm.

Voss, E. (2022). Peter Sabroe: De fattiges værner og de riges ris. Hovedland.

Danske avisartikler er senest tilgået via Mediastreem-søgning i marts 2023: ”Barbari overfor Sindssyge. Anstalterne er overfyldte”, trykt i Horsens Social-Demokrat, 25. september 1903.

”Sørgelige Tal. Vore Sindssyge”, trykt i Aarhuus Stifts-Tidende, 9. juli 1907.

”Hvad Publikum ikke ser. Et besøg på Jydske Asyl”, trykt i Aarhuus Stifts-Tidende, 2. august 1908.

”Opsynsmand Jepsen og murer Gandrup fra Aalborg. Uhyggelige Anklager mod de jyske Sindssygeanstalter”, trykt i Nordjyllands Social-Demokrat, 6. oktober 1909.

”Jeg anklager! P. Sabroe om Opsynsmand Jepsens Brøde – Rasmussen-Sneums Død”, trykt i Nordjyllands Social-Demokrat, 7. oktober 1909.

”Mishandlingerne paa vore Sindssygeanstalter”, trykt i Social-Demokraten, 8. oktober 1909.

Downloads

Published

2023-10-02

How to Cite

Kirkegaard Jensen, S., Düring, S., Keller Jensen, L., & Nielsen, K. (2023). “The Monkey Palace” – Towards an understanding of the patient’s voice in the treatment of mental illness in the asylum era. Psyke & Logos, 44(1), 149–175. https://doi.org/10.7146/pl.v44i1.141127

Issue

Section

Articles