Session 2: Madness in Historical Perspective

2nd Global Conference

Monday 14th September – Thursday 17th September 2009
Mansfield College, Oxford

Mad or Bad? The Construction of Insanity in the Southern Netherlands (16th-17th Century)
Sonja Deschrijver
University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

In 1605 Gertrude van Lennich disrupted the service given by bishop Ghysbert Masius in the city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch. She was arrested for blasphemy. When asked why she had shouted during the bishop’s sermon, she answered “she could not overcome the temptations of the evil enemy, because of which she was at times robbed of her mind and senses”. At first glance, this conflation of madness and diabolical temptations was perfectly normal in a world where a process of disenchantment had not yet touched the lives of early modern men and women. However, for the judges involved in Gertrude’s case it was still necessary to translate her discourse in a way that made legal sense with regard to the question of her guilt. Was she mad and therefore imputable or was she an evil woman driven by the devil and consequently deserving to be punished? In my presentation I will argue that in answering this question, a secular reading of madness came into existence, already prior to the eighteenth century, which is commonly regarded as the era of secularization. Using Gertrude’s criminal case as a stepping stone to other similar cases traced throughout the Southern Netherlands, I will suggest early modern people always have had the possibility of choosing – or mingling – a religious and secular language in translating madness. This choice underlies the early modern eclecticism in the understanding of madness. I will propose to move away from a linear narrative which suggests that madness became secularised during the early modern era, towards a broader view of coexisting and overlapping interpretations of insanity.

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Everyday History: Life inside the Delhi Lunatic Asylum 1870-1900
Shilpi Rajpal
University of Delhi, India

My paper would focus on the ‘internal’ history of the Delhi lunatic asylum. The Annual Reports of the Delhi lunatic asylum from 1870 to 1899 would help in unveiling the repressive nature of colonial psychiatry. The routine activities such as ‘employment and amusement’, ‘diet and medicine’, and ‘reform and reward’, that constituted integral parts of the asylum’s regime would be explicated. These trivial activities segmented and regimented the life of the insane in colonial asylums, which were punitive institutions, where madness and delinquency was sought to be disciplined. The colonial state had always displayed an anxiety, bordering almost on a fear psychosis so far as its relationship with the colonized was concerned and in this context the investigation of psychiatric power assumes a degree of significance.

My focus would be on two major areas. These would include an examination of everyday history. This would provide evidences of the connections between the effort to enforce discipline on the life of inmates and the problems related to the working of the colonial asylums. Secondly, everyday patterns of life would help us in discerning relationships of domination and resistance. Moreover, I would also examine the ongoing struggles between the asylum staff and patients which the available archival records reveal. They also tell us about the official establishment’s views and its zeal for reform that shaped the asylum’s inner life. Consequently, I would weave in world of social history and culture as a crucial entry point to delineate what constituted ‘madness’ in the asylum’s records.

My sources would be based on materials that have been tapped from repositories such as the National Archives of India, the Uttar Pradesh Archives, the Punjab State Archives and the Wellcome Library, London.