History of Emotion and Mental Health

About this course

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. Drawing on unique source materials and the multidisciplinary fields of history of emotions, senses, and experiences, this 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, you will also address related questions around gender, diversity, equality, and inclusion.

Our knowledge and our practices relating to mental afflictions have changed dramatically in the past few centuries. Formerly 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 shared. In this course, you will apply a history of experience approach to mental afflictions, working with and analyzing multiple kinds of empirical sources, from patient records, oral histories, and interviews to contemporary fiction as ‘cultural testimonies’ through history.

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 text will primarily derive from a Danish and European context, but the course also includes comparative, global, and transnational perspectives.

Faculty

Marie Meier

Faculty; Academic Coordinator

Ph.D. (History of Experience, University of Copenhagen, 2022). Visiting Scholar (Max Planck Institute Berlin, Center for the History of Emotions, 2020). Master in Second Language Acquisition (The Danish School of Education, 2013). M.A. (Angewandte Literaturwissenschaft, Freie Universität Berlin, 2007), B.A. (Comparative Literature and Modern Culture Studies, University of Copenhagen, 2004). Language instructor, Copenhagen Language Center, 2009-2018. Podcast producer, CBS, Department of Leadership, Politics and Philosophy, 2009. Scientific Assistant, The Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen, 2022) Science editor, Eftertryk, 2021-present. With DIS since 2022.