For this project I intend to explore the history of mental asylums, particularly in 1960. I analyse the patients of such mental institutes and compare them to people suffering from similar disabilities in modern day. From this research, I intend to produce a set of images and supporting text that work together to challenge the ideologies of psychology from the 1960's. In particular I will touch upon how people effected by these mental illnesses were treated by family, neighbours and the media. From first look into researching this theme I have already come across painter Richard Dadd, and the film 'Sybil' which should help me to begin further research.

I will use this blog to present my the my finding via Primary and Secondary research. I will also use it to conclude what I have found and how I will apply it to my practice.

Thursday, 6 February 2014

Madness: A Brief History by Roy Porter

Porter, R (2002). Madness: A Brief History. New York, United States: Oxford University Press Inc.


This book talks about the different perceptions of madness and the historic approaches to it's treatment. In the paragraph 'Making Madness Visible', Porter talks about the branch in allowing patients to be able to use art as therapy...
"The disturbed have expressed themselves not just verbally, in countless autobiographical outpourings but visually too. Long before 'art therapy' was recognised, it was not known for asylum patients to be permitted to draw on humanitarian grounds… The artist Richard Dadd murdered his father and was confined to Bethlem and Broadmoor, under the encouragement that he painted for the rest of his life, undertaking some of his most acclaimed canvas'."
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