Psychiatry And The Arts In Nineteenth-Century Britain

The Psychiatry and the Arts in Nineteenth-Century Britain (PAN) Network draws together established scholars and early-career academics with research interests and specialisms in the history of the arts (including music, visual arts and literature) and psychiatry. The interdisciplinary Network brings together key research experts for collaboration and reflection as well as for setting new research directions. It combines focussed discussion of historical themes with wider perspectives on engagement and impact via the inclusion of practitioners and creative artists. The Network asks
1) what was the relationship between the arts and psychiatry in nineteenth-century Britain, in the contexts of psychiatric institutions, published writings, and other media?
2) how do we understand this relationship and its associated practices within the broader context of health and social history, and the history of the arts in nineteenth-century Britain?
3) how can a deeper understanding of the historical relationship between arts and psychiatry generate direct social benefits today, across a wide range of both arts and health services?
4) what future research directions serve both to build on the historical foundations, and to make use of opportunities for impact and engagement?
The relationships between the arts and health have come to the fore in recent years, with the success of established professional arts therapies, informal forms of community arts, especially participatory arts, as well as a health and medical humanities resurgence with interests in the role of the arts. Furthermore, medical and other training environments are now adopting arts criticism and practice into their curricula, while new approaches to arts as therapy are seen in the burgeoning arts-on-prescription movement. The history of the arts as medicine has received particular attention since the early-twenty first century, with important contributions from scholars such as Horden (2000), Gouk (2000) and Hogan (2001).
Nineteenth-century Britain provided a key crucible for the development of the arts as forms of therapy, in the context of large-scale public mental health provision. Between the late-eighteenth century and the middle of the nineteenth, arrangements for the care of people experiencing mental health problems became largely formalised with the establishment of a network of pauper lunatic asylums, as well as hospitals and sanatoria for the middle and upper classes. Lacking any effective forms of medical treatment for insanity, a philosophy of 'moral management' prevailed, which saw patients live in a carefully-controlled environment, undertake employment, and enjoy rational occupations and amusements. Prior to the development of formal models of arts therapy, innovative approaches in music, art, theatre and literature across a wide range of institutions and contexts placed the arts firmly within the therapeutic practice of moral management.
The PAN Network draws together scholars involved in recent research across the interdisciplinary arts, building the foundation for future research and impact activity through engagement with museums and cultural heritage sites, artist-practitioners and health and wellbeing professionals. It offers dedicated space and time for the consideration of research directions and priorities, seeking to explore and establish innovative pathways in collaboration with impact partners. The three seminars will focus on historical themes, considering Practices, Discourses, and Contexts, moving towards a consideration of impact and engagement in the third seminar and the final conference. From an early stage, stakeholders will be consulted and formal partnerships further developed, in support of ongoing collaborative projects under the auspices of the network.