The Social Histories of Hallucinations and Delusions in the Asylum

Background: 1910-1930 the former asylum in Gothenburg (Gothenburg Hospital) was one of few hospitals in Sweden where patients who could pay for their stay had quite different surroundings within the hospital compared to other... [ view full abstract ]

Background: 1910-1930 the former asylum in Gothenburg (Gothenburg Hospital) was one of few hospitals in Sweden where patients who could pay for their stay had quite different surroundings within the hospital compared to other patients. The ”first-class”-patients often had private nurses, could wear their own clothes etc. If the actual treatment at the hospital varied for the patients from different social classes is not yet known. Experiences of hallucinations and/or delusions, though, were documented as experiences for patients unregarding social class or categories of diagnosis.

The Aim of the Thesis: The starting point of my doctoral thesis is a view regarding experiences of hallucinations and delusions as described phenomena even before they were conceptualised into biomedical mental disease concepts. The main aim is to understand if there, at this time, were different ways of understanding hallucinations and delusions present at the hospital and if that - in that case - related to class and gender had impact on the consequenses for the admitted patients.

Methods:

1) Through demographical data about the admissions assess the impact of class and gender on diagnosis, duration of hospital stay and readmissions.

2) Through Document Analysis study the narratives in committal records for patients experiencing hallucinations and/or delusions relating the narratives to class, gender and life events. I am also interested in the presence of relatives related to class.

Results: (Results can not be presented at this moment. But in time for the conference there will be some preliminary results.)