Faculty Lecture
Remembering through museums, objects, art and more: The heritage of psychiatric institutions and their patients
- Elisabeth Punzi (University of Gothenburg)
- Datum
- dinsdag 13 mei 2025
- Tijd
- Bezoekadres
-
Van Steenis
Einsteinweg 2
2333 CC Leiden - Zaal
- Reuvens Hall (main hall Van Steenis)
Abstract
During the last decades of the 20th century, psychiatric institutions were dismantled. Some were transformed into residential areas, hotel facilities, business parks, etc. Some were abandoned. Staff members sometimes collected objects and established grass root museums. In other cases, formal museums were established. Unfortunately, the narratives and objects of patients tended to be marginalized in these museums.
In this presentation I approach former psychiatric institutions as a valuable heritage. Focus is on how objects, memories, and art from patients, staff members, artists, and others, can be resources for addressing current oppressive practices, and remember patients in respectful ways. I will for example talk about a digital museum, created by patients, a decorative pillow made by a survivor of the Holocaust, and the work of historian Geoffrey Reaume, which all complicate the idea of psychiatry as a medical discipline in constant scientific progress. These examples show how remembering may take place through artistic works and place-based memory activities such as walking tours, that put patients’ memories, narratives, and lived experiences first.
After the lecture there will be Faculty Drinks.