Course Syllabus

 

Course Description

Our everyday lives are increasingly intertwined with questions of mental health, yet mental afflictions are still shrouded in a great deal of stigma. This course explores how experiences of mental illness have changed in relation to cultural and societal developments in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The course offers an alternative entry into the history of ‘madness’ and the intertwining of family history, mental illness, secrecy, and state development. Focusing on the history and politics of mental illness, the course will also address related questions such as gender, diversity, equality and inclusion.  

During the last centuries the knowledge practices related to mental afflictions have changed dramatically. From being handled in seclusion at home or in an institution, mental illnesses are now mainly dealt with through out-patient medical treatment, and psychiatric diagnoses are commonly disclosed. Students will work with and analyze multiple kinds of empirical sources, conceptualized as ‘cultural testimonies’ – patient records, oral history interviews and fiction.   

Overall, we will focus on how the shifting cultural dynamics of secrecy and disclosure have shaped the situated, individual and collective experiences of mental suffering. The cases and texts will primarily derive from a Danish and European context, but the course also includes comparative, global and transnational perspectives.  

Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Historicize and analyze changing understandings of mental health, mental illness, normality and mental difference.
• Explore lived experiences of mental health and mental illness through emotion, identity, stigma and social context.
• Examine the relationship between mental health, knowledge and power, including the roles of psychiatry, the state, institutions and families.
• Critically engage with psychiatric categories and labels, including contemporary perspectives such as neurodiversity,
• Analyze diverse cultural testimonies such as historical sources, literature, film, images, objects and personal narratives.
• Apply historical, cultural and creative research methods and communicate findings through discussion, presentation and writing.

 

Faculty

Katrine Kehlet Bechsgaard 

I have a PhD in Sociolinguistics from the University of Copenhagen, and my research focuses on how people and mental conditions are named and labeled, how ideas about normality and difference change over time, and the neurodiversity paradigm. I have been a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, and I have a Master's degree in Danish from the University of Copenhagen, including studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Readings

(Examples of readings: Selection and excerpts of the following books and articles - not a complete list):

Barnwell, Ashley (2019). “Family Secrets and the Slow Violence of Social Stigma.” Sociology 53, no. 6, 1111–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038519846443

Bechsgaard, Katrine K. (2025). "The Significance of Labels. From Shy and Lazy to Autistic and ADHD." In Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture. Vol. 6, Issue 2. DOI: 10.9707/2833-1508.1221

Cohen, Deborah (2013). Family Secrets: Living with Shame from the Victorians to the Present Day. London: Viking, 2013.

Ditlevsen, Tove (1991). The Faces. Seattle: Fjord Press.

Frydendahl Larsen, Bolette (2017). “When the Problem of Incorrigible Girls Became a Problem of Psychopathy.” In Nordic Girlhoods, 137–159. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Grinker, Roy Richard (2021). Nobody’s Normal. How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Hamilton, Lauren (2019). Disability as a Social Construction: Investigating How Autism is Represented in the Mainstream Media. Prism: Casting New Light on Learning, Theory and Practice, 2(2), 20-38.

Kirkebæk, Birgit (2005). “Sexuality as Disability: The Women on Sprog⊘ and Danish Society.” Scandinavian journal of disability research : SJDR 7, no. 3-4, 194–205.

Koch, Lene (2004). “The Meaning of Eugenics: Reflections on the Government of Genetic Knowledge in the Past and the Present.” Science in context 17, no. 3, 315–331.

Kragh, Jesper Vaczy (2021). Lobotomy Nation: the History of Psychosurgery and Psychiatry in Denmark. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.

Link, B. G., Cullen, F. T., Frank, J. & Wozniak, J. F. (1987). The social rejection of former mental patients: Understanding why labels matter. American Journal of Sociology, 92, 1461-1500.

Meier, Marie (2021). “The Mentally Ill: From Insane to User of Psychiatry.” In Citizen Categories in the Danish Welfare State: From the Founding Epoch to the Neoliberal Era. Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag.

Parker, Ian, Georgaca, Eugene, Harper, David, McLaughlin, Terence & Stowell-Smith, Mark (1995). Deconstructing Psychopathology. London: SAGE Publications.

Singer, Judy (2017). Neurodiversity. The birth of an idea. Judy Singer.

Skram, Amalie (1899). Professor Hieronimus. London ; John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1899.

Field Studies

The field study days will give us the opportunity to make excursions to former psychiatric hospitals or other relevant institutions connected to the history and politics of mental health.

Examples could be:  

Visit to Psychiatric Center Sct. Hans in Roskilde: https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psykiatrisk_Center_Sct._Hans#/media/Fil:SanktHans.jpg

Visit the Center for Art and Mental Health on Amager: https://ckms.dk/

Visit the Center for Culture and the Mind at the University of Copenhagen: https://cultmind.ku.dk/  

Guest Lecturers

In some sessions, we will have visits from scholars and/or artists working within the field of history of psychiatry and with perspectives on mental health. 

Approach to Teaching

The course will ­combine overview sessions, student presentations, class discussions, guest lectures, field studies and the reading and analysis of theoretical texts and empirical sources. Given the sensitivity of the subject, it is particularly important to me to create a safe, respectful and comfortable learning environment in which students feel able to engage openly with the course material and with one another. 

Expectations of the Students

The course is designed for curious and ambitious students who are willing to read theoretical texts, think critically and participate actively in discussions and activities. The course includes group work and joint activities, while teaching and learning activities can be adapted to accommodate individual learning styles and needs.

 

Structure and content

We will explore the history and politics of emotion and mental health though four interconnected parts: 

Part I: Making Mental Difference

How have societies defined and classified mental illness, normality and difference?

Part II: Experiencing and Living with Mental Difference 

How are mental health and mental illness experienced, expressed, remembered and shaped by emotions, relationships and labels?

Part III: Governing Mental Difference

How have families, institutions, medicine and the state sought to define, manage and regulate mental difference?

Part IV: Rethinking Mental Difference

How are established understandings of mental illness challenged, and what alternative ways of understanding mental difference and mental health are emerging?

 

Evaluation & Grading

• Engaged participation, commentary on texts and contribution to discussions 25%
• Group presentation 25%
• Synopsis + presentation of creative research project in class 25%
• Concluding reflective essay 25%