Invited Talk: The Borders of Madness: Silence and Patient Agency in Long Nineteenth-Century Britain

Abstract

In view of the absence of a comprehensive analysis of the intersection between medical and literary understandings of psychotic silence and patient agency in current studies of madness and creativity, my talk aims to fill this gap by asking three questions: [1] How did silence function as a practice and/or theory in the institutional diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses in long nineteenth-century Britain? [2] How does silence act as a significant agency that enables a new understanding of the experience of writers as patients and literature as testimony of mental disorder? [3] How do asylum writings by mentally disabled authors play a pivotal role in shaping and challenging long nineteenth-century, as well as current, literary and medical discourse?

To answer these questions, I will first trace the history of the practice and/or theory of silence in the diagnosis and treatment for mental illnesses in medical institutions and lunatic asylums in long nineteenth-century Britain. I will then examine the complexities surrounding the ways silence is utilised as an enabling agency by mentally disabled writers who produced works within the confines of lunatic asylums in the period. I will establish the significance of psychotically disordered writers in shaping new understanding of the meaning and function of silence as a form of patient agency by challenging existing critical literary and medical discourse.

By spotlighting a substantial amount of under-studied works by mentally disabled writers from the long nineteenth century, this talk affirms the agency of patient in silent therapy for psychotic disorders and, subsequently, asserts silence as an enabling medium in their recovery processes. This talk emphasises that research into the function of silence in the history of institutional diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses will bring new significance to these neglected materials in both current and long nineteenth-century literary and medical discourse.

D. Hack Tuke, Reform in the treatment of the insane : early history of The Retreat, York, its objects and influence, with a report of the celebrations of its centenary, 1892. Wellcome Collection, London.