The Gendered Spectacle of Suffering
Lucy Weir explores the gendered nature of critical responses to on-stage violence I am an art historian by training, though my expertise lies in performance, from dance and theatre to live art. Throughout my
Prescribing Restraint: Patient Liberty and Movement in the Insane Asylum
Vesna Curlic explores the debates around patient liberty and restraint in asylum spaces In 1890, an anonymous patient at Crichton Royal Hospital in Dumfries, Scotland wrote a piece for the institutional magazine, The New
‘Madness, Art, and Society: Beyond Illness’: Book Review
Wendy Lowe reviews Anna Harpin’s Madness, Art, and Society: Beyond Illness (Routledge, 2018). Madness, Art and Society provides a comprehensive account of Anna Harpin’s ways of looking at and critiquing the practices of diagnosis and
‘OCD in Society: Making Sense of a Hidden Illness’, Conference Review
Eva Surawy Stepney reports on conference ‘OCD in Society: Making Sense of a Hidden Illness’, Queen Mary, University of London, Saturday June 8th 2019. What is the relationship between Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Western
‘Comedy and Mental Health: Future Directions’, Conference Review
Dr Dieter Declercq reflects on the ‘Comedy and Mental Health: Future Directions’ conference, University of Kent, May 1st 2019. Does comedy, from stand-up to sitcoms, offer interesting insights into experiences of mental health? Could
Games for Wellbeing: Empathy for the Blocks in Thomas Was Alone (2012)
Guest author Agata Waszkiewicz explores the necessity of empathy in gaming to educate about mental illness with the example of indie creation Thomas Was Alone (2012) With the unquestionable success of video games in
Illness as metaphor II: Ear for eye
I ended last month by suggesting that we need works of art which strip illness bare of its metaphors and give truth value to both its social conditions and the testimonies of those affected.
Getting mental illness right in gaming
Beata Gubacsi explores the representation of mental illness in Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and other recent games in her regular column, Medical Humanities 2.0: Recently, there’s been an increasing interest in the interactions of gaming,
Gartnavel Royal: An Asylum and an Inspiration
Writer Gillean McDougall reflects on Gartnavel Royal Hospital, NHS archives and family history. The old Gartnavel Royal Asylum, a well-known landmark in the West of Glasgow, sits on a busy arterial road leading out