Patient(konst). En kulturanalytisk studie om sinnessjukdom och kreativitet under 1900-talets första hälft
(2026) TKAM02 20261Division of Ethnology
- Abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to, with a cultural analytical perspective, examine one of Sweden’s forgotten cultural heritages: patient art from the old mental institutions. This is to increase the knowledge about the interaction between humans, society, creativity, sickness and health care.
The material consists of patient art and patient journals of three patients: Tor Norling, Hilda Petersson och Rudolf Persson and literary work of the professor and psychiatrist Bror Gadelius. The theoretical framework used in the study is Michel Foucault’s discourse analysis.
The analysis begins with mapping out the ideas about insanity and creativity of professor and psychiatrist Bror Gadelius and how this impacted the actual psychiatric care of... (More) - The purpose of this thesis is to, with a cultural analytical perspective, examine one of Sweden’s forgotten cultural heritages: patient art from the old mental institutions. This is to increase the knowledge about the interaction between humans, society, creativity, sickness and health care.
The material consists of patient art and patient journals of three patients: Tor Norling, Hilda Petersson och Rudolf Persson and literary work of the professor and psychiatrist Bror Gadelius. The theoretical framework used in the study is Michel Foucault’s discourse analysis.
The analysis begins with mapping out the ideas about insanity and creativity of professor and psychiatrist Bror Gadelius and how this impacted the actual psychiatric care of that time. It shows that, even though we remember the mental institutions as confinements of suffering and misery, the vision of Bror Gadelius was quite the opposite, who viewed the mental institutions as the new modern era of psychiatric care, characterized by its humane and liberal treatment. After mapping out the institutional machinery, the thesis presents artwork made by three former psychiatric patients and explores the question of how we can understand this art and explores themes about identity, power and storytelling.
The findings of the thesis show that the interactions between humans, society, creativity, sickness and health care highly depend on the coercive power of the discourse. If the prevailing discourse holds up most of the space, our intentions of changing the psychiatric care for the better, might be futile, because as the thesis shows, the discourse has stayed mostly consistent since the first half of the 20th century. Therefore, it is highly relevant to allow other discourses to take place, to promote change. Another finding was that the patient art, in addition to the medical journals, played a part when the psychiatrists created the story surrounding the patient. Also, the patient art, as an object, is a materialization of the patients own experiences of the mental institution, a kind of testimonial object. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9236805
- author
- Lundin, Sandra LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- TKAM02 20261
- year
- 2026
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Patient art, Mental institution, Cultural Heritage, Creativity, Insanity
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 9236805
- date added to LUP
- 2026-06-15 17:40:06
- date last changed
- 2026-06-15 17:40:06
@misc{9236805,
abstract = {{The purpose of this thesis is to, with a cultural analytical perspective, examine one of Sweden’s forgotten cultural heritages: patient art from the old mental institutions. This is to increase the knowledge about the interaction between humans, society, creativity, sickness and health care.
The material consists of patient art and patient journals of three patients: Tor Norling, Hilda Petersson och Rudolf Persson and literary work of the professor and psychiatrist Bror Gadelius. The theoretical framework used in the study is Michel Foucault’s discourse analysis.
The analysis begins with mapping out the ideas about insanity and creativity of professor and psychiatrist Bror Gadelius and how this impacted the actual psychiatric care of that time. It shows that, even though we remember the mental institutions as confinements of suffering and misery, the vision of Bror Gadelius was quite the opposite, who viewed the mental institutions as the new modern era of psychiatric care, characterized by its humane and liberal treatment. After mapping out the institutional machinery, the thesis presents artwork made by three former psychiatric patients and explores the question of how we can understand this art and explores themes about identity, power and storytelling.
The findings of the thesis show that the interactions between humans, society, creativity, sickness and health care highly depend on the coercive power of the discourse. If the prevailing discourse holds up most of the space, our intentions of changing the psychiatric care for the better, might be futile, because as the thesis shows, the discourse has stayed mostly consistent since the first half of the 20th century. Therefore, it is highly relevant to allow other discourses to take place, to promote change. Another finding was that the patient art, in addition to the medical journals, played a part when the psychiatrists created the story surrounding the patient. Also, the patient art, as an object, is a materialization of the patients own experiences of the mental institution, a kind of testimonial object.}},
author = {{Lundin, Sandra}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Patient(konst). En kulturanalytisk studie om sinnessjukdom och kreativitet under 1900-talets första hälft}},
year = {{2026}},
}