Monty Python without the Laughs

It is difficult to do justice to Clair Wills’ 15000 words long, incredibly rich, and complex essay. The main aim here is to highlight some of what she writes and stimulate enough interest so that the reader will turn to the essay itself. Another point is to take the essay as a point of departure to think about how the history of psychiatry is written and read. And if these are not reasons enough for looking up the essay, then it is relevant at least do so to find out what our history looks like to a wider circle of literate readers. Wills’ essay is about experience: lived, erased, forgotten, remembered, and imagined. At the heart of this experience is Netherne Hospital in Coulsdon, Surrey, one of a ring of mental asylums that could be found around London for most of the 20th century (Cane Hill, Caterham Mental Subnormality and Warlingam hospitals are others south of London which are also mentioned). Other places are visited too: Montmartre in Paris, Ballinasloe in Ireland, and Highgate in North London. Places and people are encountered both directly and in images, whether art or film.