Colonialism and the production of psychiatric knowledge in the Cape, 1891-1920

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorLouw, Johannen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorSwartz, Sallyen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2015-01-03T05:39:43Z
dc.date.available2015-01-03T05:39:43Z
dc.date.issued1996en_ZA
dc.descriptionBibliography: leaves 221-232.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation describes the evolution of psychiatric practice in the Cape during period 1891-1920, following the appointment of the colony's first Inspector of Asylums. It was a time during which legal reform and social and economic change brought about significant shifts in management of the Cape insane population. The dissertation describes conditions of increasingly strict segregation of patients according to racial categorisation and gender. It argues that this period was pivotal in establishing psychiatric practices closely related to those in Britain. Particular attention is given to the history of Val ken berg Asylum. which opened in 1891, and was the colony's first whites-only asylum. The dissertation describes those features of colonialism rendered visible through Cape psychiatric practice, and explores their implications for the management of the Cape insane. It argues that Cape psychiatry mirrored and contributed to the racist and sexist attitudes upon which exploitation of the colonised population was predicated, though the production of racist knowledge about the colonised population. The dissertation uses management of the insane in the Cape as an example through which to explore the complex ways in which the 'mother' country was made present in colonial practice through the creation of structures which not only insisted on a hierarchy of knowledge and power flowing from coloniser to colonised but also constructed the indigenous as susceptible to rule. The dissertaion argues that texts have primacy as the medium through which knowledge is formulated, circulated and sustained. Discourse analysis of a wide variety of texts provide a reading of the institutional and discursive practices associated with Cape colonial psychiatry. Doctors, around whose activities psychiatric practice was constellated, are the dominant voice in theses texts. However, the subaltern voices of the insane can be distinguished in the contradictions, and silences of the case records, analysis of which is a central focus of the study. Case records are a largely neglected resource in histories of insanity, psychiatry, and asylums. This dissertation formulate and illustrates a method of reading case records which attempts to address the theoretical and methodological problems which have, in the past, contributed to their neglect as a resource.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationSwartz, S. (1996). <i>Colonialism and the production of psychiatric knowledge in the Cape, 1891-1920</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Psychology. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/11127en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationSwartz, Sally. <i>"Colonialism and the production of psychiatric knowledge in the Cape, 1891-1920."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Psychology, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/11127en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationSwartz, S. 1996. Colonialism and the production of psychiatric knowledge in the Cape, 1891-1920. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Swartz, Sally AB - This dissertation describes the evolution of psychiatric practice in the Cape during period 1891-1920, following the appointment of the colony's first Inspector of Asylums. It was a time during which legal reform and social and economic change brought about significant shifts in management of the Cape insane population. The dissertation describes conditions of increasingly strict segregation of patients according to racial categorisation and gender. It argues that this period was pivotal in establishing psychiatric practices closely related to those in Britain. Particular attention is given to the history of Val ken berg Asylum. which opened in 1891, and was the colony's first whites-only asylum. The dissertation describes those features of colonialism rendered visible through Cape psychiatric practice, and explores their implications for the management of the Cape insane. It argues that Cape psychiatry mirrored and contributed to the racist and sexist attitudes upon which exploitation of the colonised population was predicated, though the production of racist knowledge about the colonised population. The dissertation uses management of the insane in the Cape as an example through which to explore the complex ways in which the 'mother' country was made present in colonial practice through the creation of structures which not only insisted on a hierarchy of knowledge and power flowing from coloniser to colonised but also constructed the indigenous as susceptible to rule. The dissertaion argues that texts have primacy as the medium through which knowledge is formulated, circulated and sustained. Discourse analysis of a wide variety of texts provide a reading of the institutional and discursive practices associated with Cape colonial psychiatry. Doctors, around whose activities psychiatric practice was constellated, are the dominant voice in theses texts. However, the subaltern voices of the insane can be distinguished in the contradictions, and silences of the case records, analysis of which is a central focus of the study. Case records are a largely neglected resource in histories of insanity, psychiatry, and asylums. This dissertation formulate and illustrates a method of reading case records which attempts to address the theoretical and methodological problems which have, in the past, contributed to their neglect as a resource. DA - 1996 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 1996 T1 - Colonialism and the production of psychiatric knowledge in the Cape, 1891-1920 TI - Colonialism and the production of psychiatric knowledge in the Cape, 1891-1920 UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/11127 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/11127
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationSwartz S. Colonialism and the production of psychiatric knowledge in the Cape, 1891-1920. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Psychology, 1996 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/11127en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Psychologyen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherPsychologyen_ZA
dc.titleColonialism and the production of psychiatric knowledge in the Cape, 1891-1920en_ZA
dc.typeDoctoral Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoral
dc.type.qualificationnamePhDen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
thesis_hum_1996_swartz_s (1).pdf
Size:
25.08 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
Collections
PhD / Doctoral