Relocating Madness: From the Mental Patient to the Person

by Peter Barham, Robert Hayward

Not surprisingly, the policy of closing mental hospitals and relocating mental patients in the community has generated great controversy. The aim of contemporary mental health policy has been to enable people who have had a severe mental illness to lead relatively independent lives in the community, rather than be contained permanently in large mental asylums. Close the asylums, it was thought, and many of the problems of chronic mental disorder would vanish.
Reality has dashed many hopes. Despite numerous expert proclamations, rather little is known about how the beneficiaries of the new policies perceive their good fortune. This book reports on the complexities and ironies involved here, directly from the front line. The relocation of madness is explored as a process that involves the creation and negotiation of new frames of understanding, and new styles of relationship, between former mental patients and 'normal' society.
Partly, this is a story of dismal inadequacies in service provision, of blighted lives and mordant ironies. Yet it is also a narrative of hope, of the struggles of members of a social group to recover their dignity and be permitted to join in society. The authors stress the need for open dialogue between people with mental illness and the wider society. For this new edition they contribute an epilogue in which they expand on their discussion and take account of recent alarms and developments.

Paperback

First published January 19, 1995

About the author

Peter Barham is a British psychologist, historian, and mental health advocate whose career spans more than five decades. His work bridges clinical research, psychoanalysis, historical scholarship, activism, and filmmaking. With doctorates in abnormal psychology from the University of Durham and modern history from the University of Cambridge, Barham has combined academic rigor with hands-on engagement in mental health reform.
A chartered psychologist and elected fellow of the British Psychological Society, he was recognized for his outstanding contributions to psychological understandings of psychosis. He founded the Hamlet Trust, an organization that led grassroots mental health initiatives in Central and Eastern Europe with the support of George Soros’ Open Society Institute.
Barham is the author of several influential books, including Schizophrenia and Human Value (1984; revised 1995), Forgotten Lunatics of the Great War (2004, 2007), and Closing the Asylum: The mental patient in modern society (1992; reissued 2020).

Reviews

[Jay Hamm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish the issues in this book were more dated nearly 25 years later. As it stands though, this should be required reading for those interested in psychosis and the social roles people diagnosed with mental illness inhabit. Full of empathy and nuance.