The Concealment of Mental Maladies: A History of Experience

PhD defence by Marie Meier.

Assessment Committee

• Associate Professor Søren Rud, Chair (University of Copenhagen)
• Professor Lasse Horne Kjældgaard (University of Southern Denmark)
• Dr Ashley Barnwell (University of Melbourne)

Moderator of the defence

• Associate Professor Anne Folke Henningsen (University of Copenhagen)

Copies of the thesis will be available for consultation at the following three places:

• At the Information Desk of the Copenhagen University Library, South Campus
• In Reading Room East of the Royal Library (the Black Diamond)
• At the Saxo-Institute, Karen Blixens Plads 8

Abstract

The dissertation The Concealment of Mental Maladies: A History of Experience explores the historically contingent experiences of mental illness in relation to the developing Danish welfare state in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Drawing on ecological approaches to mental afflictions, and employing different kinds of empirical sources, conceptualized as ‘cultural testimonies’ – patient records, oral history interviews and fiction – it specifically focuses on how the shifting dynamics of secrecy and disclosure have shaped the situated, individual and collective experiences of mental illness. Three articles examine the intertwining of family history, mental illness, secrecy and welfare state development. Together with a fourth article on the ethical dilemmas of historical inquiry, the study contributes by developing a new ‘history of experience’ approach to the phenomenon of mental illness.