Behind the Masks: Mental Health, Marginalisation and COVID-19
Rebecca Walker and Jo Vearey discuss how COVID-19 is impacting mental health and existing inequalities in South Africa
“I plunge headlong into disaster”: Unstitching Agnes Richter’s Jacket
Exploring the connection between institutionalisation and women’s needlework, textile historian Isabella Rosner reflects on a unique nineteenth-century object: a jacket made, stitched upon and worn by seamstress Agnes Richter during her 26-year incarceration at
Take It Back: Zines, Madness and Mental Health
Lilith Cooper introduces Take It Back, a participatory zine making project about madness and mental health
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.