Re-Assembling the Social in So Called âMental Illnessâ? Reflections on the Uses of Material Culture in the Historiography of Psychiatry and in Mad Studies

Elena Demke

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Chapter 10 Re-Assembling the Social in So Called âMental Illnessâ? Reflections on the Uses of Material Culture in the Historiography of Psychiatry and in Mad Studies

In: Narrating the Heritage of Psychiatry

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Elena Demke

Elena Demke
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 185â201

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004519848_012

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Abstract

While the significance of things in the âmaking of patientsâ and the ways in which patients appropriated their role in the material surroundings of psychiatric care have attracted increasing interested by cultural historians, the story of materiality in experiences of madness and recovery outside its psychiatric definition has remained largely untold.

My chapter will talk about a project that constitutes a first attempt to fill this gap. Funded by the German ministry of research and education, and relying on ethical and epistemological considerations of survivor research and Mad Studies, a âvirtual museum of madness and recovery/discoveryâ is being created. Based on âobject-elicited interviewsâ, psychiatric survivors in Germany tell their stories of madness and recovery, focusing on things that acquired special meanings during experiences of crises and the struggles to come to terms with them. The things that come into focus include objects facilitating protection and helpful bonds such as dolls or personal talismans, stories about special meanings attached to food and clothing during crises up to visions or the power of ordering and re-ordering things in oneâs daily life. Rituals that enable persons to find their personal path through extreme distress receive special attention in these narratives. They can be understood outside pathologizing categories when research sticks to tracing the âagency of the objectsâ in interrelation with the agency of the person using them. While these things and their usages speak about attempts to tackle unusual, and often scary or traumatic situations, the materiality of psychiatry focuses on âfixing the personâ. Thus, the focus on materiality here helps to juxtapose the medical and the social model of disability as applied to mental crises.

My chapter will not only discuss the findings from 20 interviews with psychiatric survivors but also discuss the methodology of the research: How is survivor-control facilitated? How does it affect the interviewing and the conceptualizing and planning of a virtual museum? When the classical pitfalls in terms of epistemological injustice are being addressed â to what extend can knowledge production and the public representation of marginalized experiences ever be just?

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Narrating the Heritage of Psychiatry

Series:Â Narratives and Mental Health, Volume: 1

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004519848

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 09 Oct 2024

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Chapter 10 Re-Assembling the Social in So Called âMental Illnessâ? Reflections on the Uses of Material Culture in the Historiography of Psychiatry and in Mad Studies

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Narrating the Heritage of Psychiatry

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Chapter 10 Re-Assembling the Social in So Called âMental Illnessâ? Reflections on the Uses of Material Culture in the Historiography of Psychiatry and in Mad Studies