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Madness, Psychiatry and Anti-Psychiatry in English and French Women’S Writing and Film

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Madness, Psychiatry and Anti-Psychiatry in English and French Women’S Writing and Film MADNESS, PSYCHIATRY AND ANTI-PSYCHIATRY IN ENGLISH AND FRENCH WOMEN’S WRITING AND FILM By EMMA LOUISE ANNABEL MURDOCH A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Modern Languages SchooL of Languages, CuLtures, History of Art and Music College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham November 2016 i University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract This thesis examines the theme of women’s madness in the 1960s and 1970s through the works of four EngLish and French writers and fiLm-makers: ChantaL Akerman, Emma Santos, Jane Arden and Mary Barnes. It examines how these four writers and fiLm-makers inscribe madness into their texts from a socioLogicaL angLe, presenting the texts and fiLms discussed as socio-historicaL artefacts whiLe anaLysing each writer and fiLm-maker’s representation of women’s madness. Inspired by psychoLogist PhylLis Chesler, who argues that madness is tied to sociaLLy defined gender roLes and used to demarcate vioLations of expected gendered behaviour, this research anaLyses various manifestations of ‘madness’ from the everyday madness of ChantaL Akerman, to psychiatricaLLy incarcerated madness in the texts of Emma Santos, to madness infLuenced by anti-psychiatry through the works of Jane Arden, to compLete immersion in anti-psychiatry with Mary Barnes. The interdiscipLinary and cross-cuLturaL nature of this thesis combines fieLds from both EngLish and French studies, from the study of femaLe writers and fiLm-makers, psychoanaLytic theory, the history of psychiatry and how they intersect with gender combined with contemporary feminist writings of phiLosophy, psychoLogy, and theoLogy. ii Acknowledgements Many thanks to my supervisory team, Dr Kate Ince and Professor Lisa Downing, and my academic advisor Dr Stephen Forcer for aLL your guidance and support. Many thanks aLso to the staff in the department of Modern Languages at the University of Birmingham, particuLarly Dr Sarah Fishwick for the teaching opportunities you have given me. I dedicate this thesis to my parents without whom none of this wouLd have been possibLe; to my wonderfuL friends especiaLLy, Katie, ManaL, Anna, Mike, WiLL, Alex and Luca, aLL of whom have made the study of this thesis much more bearabLe; and to my husband FaisaL – thank you for aLL of your undying Love and support. iii Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 Feminist Texts and Contexts: Film, Literary Theory and Philosophy ......... 25 Chapter One: The Gendered History of Madness, Psychiatry and Anti- Psychiatry ............................................................................................................ 35 Introduction and Ancient Madness ................................................................ 35 Madness and the Witch Hunts ........................................................................ 38 The Moral Therapy of Phillipe Pinel and William Tuke ................................. 42 Mental Health Legislative Reform in England ............................................... 44 Mental Health Legislative Reform in France .................................................. 45 The Birth of Psychiatry and Psychiatric Diagnosis ...................................... 47 Jean-Martin Charcot and Hysteria .................................................................. 47 Sigmund Freud and the Birth of Psychoanalysis ......................................... 52 Emil Kraepelin and the Dementia Praecox .................................................... 55 Eugen Bleuler and Schizophrenia .................................................................. 57 Psychiatric Controversy .................................................................................. 59 Erving Goffman’s Asylums and Labelling Theory ........................................ 61 The Birth of the Anti-Psychiatry Movement .................................................. 63 Thomas Szasz and The Myth of Mental Illness ............................................. 66 Ronald D. Laing and Anti-Psychiatry ............................................................. 70 The French Context ......................................................................................... 74 Michel Foucault and Anti-Psychiatry ............................................................. 74 Félix Guattari and Anti-Psychiatry ................................................................. 79 The Late Twentieth Century, the Twenty-first Century and Biological Psychiatry ......................................................................................................... 84 Chapter Two: The Everyday Madness of Chantal Akerman ............................ 88 Introduction: Chantal Akerman ...................................................................... 88 Akerman’s Feminist Aesthetic? ...................................................................... 94 Madness as a Gender Norm Violation ............................................................ 96 Everyday Madness ........................................................................................... 98 Madness and Confinement of Domestic Space and Ritual ........................ 101 A Madness of Alienation and Silence .......................................................... 114 ‘Mad’ and Deviant Sexualities ....................................................................... 121 The Madness of Violence .............................................................................. 128 Chapter Three: Emma Santos and her ‘Episodic Traumatic Reliving’ ......... 138 The Genesis of Trauma Theory .................................................................... 141 Reliving Trauma ............................................................................................. 145 iv The Trauma of ‘Castration’ ............................................................................ 147 The Trauma of Abortion ................................................................................ 159 A ‘Mad’ Female Subject Position .................................................................. 168 Santos’s Madness: ‘Ils l’appellent la folle’ .................................................. 176 The Psychiatrist: Love and Betrayal ............................................................ 185 Chapter Four: Jane Arden – ‘If you’re a woman you’re mad’ ....................... 190 Introduction .................................................................................................... 190 Jane Arden and Madness .............................................................................. 193 Therapy — ‘I’ll say you need this’ ................................................................ 195 Constructing a Female Identity ..................................................................... 206 Madwoman as Monster? ............................................................................... 214 The Female Experience: ‘Silent on the rack’ ............................................... 217 The Madness of Religion and the Female Christ ........................................ 223 Chapter Five: Anti-Psychiatry Embodied – Mary Barnes: Two Accounts of a Journey through Madness ................................................................................ 227 The ‘Madwoman’ as Subaltern: Authorship and Subjectivity .................... 229 An Overview of Kingsley Hall ....................................................................... 234 Thematics of Two Accounts of a Journey through Madness .................... 240 Barnes’s ‘Divided Self’ .................................................................................. 241 Barnes’s ‘Schizophrenic Voyage’ ................................................................. 243 The First Descent into Madness ................................................................... 249 The Mad Family Unit ...................................................................................... 251 The Mad and Bad Mother .............................................................................. 254 The Body, Sin and Womanhood ................................................................... 262 Gender and the Doctor/Patient Relationship ............................................... 271 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 276 Bibliography ....................................................................................................... 281 v List of Illustrations Figure 1: Robert-FLeury, T., 1887. Pinel Freeing the Insane. [painting] ...... 2 Figure 2: Regnard, P., 1878. Supplication amoureuse. [photograph]. ..... 49 Figure 3: Regnard, P., 1878. Érotisme. [photograph] ............................... 50 Figure 4: Regnard, P., 1878. Extase. [photograph] .................................
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