Dangerously Young: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from a Historical Perspective

Staff from the Archives and Museum recently attended the 3^rd International Conference on the History and Heritage of Psychiatry, which was held at the Museum Dr Guislain in Ghent on the 28^th and 29^th April.

The theme of the conference was Dangerously Young: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from a Historical Perspective. Bethlem’s archives were featured in two papers: Colin Gale and Caroline Smith examined the cases of several child and adolescent patients treated at Bethlem in the nineteenth century and Zbigniew Kotowicz of the University of Lisbon drew upon his extensive research in the Bethlem archives to examine the development of child psychiatry. Surprisingly few children were treated at Bethlem; of the 1069 patients under the age of 21 admitted between 1815 and 1899 only 58 were 15 or under.

The Belgian perspective was provided by a number of high-profile speakers, including the Flemish Commissioner for the Rights of Children. Belgium has relatively high levels of teen suicide, children in prison, child abuse and domestic violence (shockingly it is statistically more dangerous to be a Belgian woman than a Belgian soldier) and several papers explored the connection between child abuse and delinquency.

The role of DSM (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) in the ever-increasing number of mental disorders being diagnosed in children was a recurring theme, and Lisa Appignanesi (Chair of the Freud Museum) questioned how far an attempt is being made to medicalise ordinary emotions such as sadness, shyness and anxiety in order to benefit the drug companies.

Overall this was a thought-provoking conference and an excellent opportunity to meet representatives from museums of psychiatry throughout Europe. There was also a chance to pay a visit to one of Bethlem’s paintings: The Anger Within by Elise Warriner, on loan to the Museum Dr Guislain as part of their exhibition The Weighty Body: Fat or Thin, Vanity or Insanity. The exhibition explores the history of fasting, including those who stopped eating for religious or political reasons, and includes several works on the theme of anorexia nervosa. The exhibition has now closed but is due to be reprised at the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden in 2012.

Conference Season

Further to the conference announcement we posted last month, here are details of more upcoming conferences which may interest our readers:

The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL is hosting a one-day postgraduate History of Psychology and Psychiatry Conference on 19 March 2011. It is intended to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas amongst postgraduate students in the UK and abroad conducting research in this field.

Birmingham City University has organised a one-day conference on Insanity and the Lunatic Asylum in the 19th Century for 13 May 2011, to be held in the redundant chapel of All Saints’ Hospital (formerly Birmingham Lunatic Asylum), now closed.

Birkbeck College is hosting a weekend conference on The Language of Illness and Pain on 2-3 July 2011. It will be supported by an exhibition exploring the creative interaction between medicine and the humanities.

The 24th Congress of the British Society for the History of Medicine will take place at the University of Guildford from 31 August to 3 September 2011, and will cover topics ranging from ‘museums and archives’ to ‘medicine and madness’.

The 2010 Conference of the European Association for the History of Medicine and Health, devoted to the theme of ‘Body and Mind in the History of Medicine and Health’, will take place at Utrecht University on 1-4 September 2011.

Conference, 28-29 April 2011: Dangerously Young

The 3rd International Conference on the History and Heritage of Psychiatry is to take place at Museum Dr Guislain in Ghent, Belgium on 28 and 29 April 2011. The conference programme is now available on the Museum’s website, here.

‘Dangerously Young: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from a Historical Perspective

‘Children and youth occupy a special position in today’s society. On the one hand they are described as ‘the future generation’; on the other hand they are increasingly regarded as a threat and a danger to society. As a result, children are constantly examined with an incessant question in mind: ‘Is this child normal?’

‘The 3rd International Conference wishes to place this topic within a historical perspective with lectures on the history and evolution of child and adolescent psychiatry. Internationally renowned speakers from various disciplines will share their insights from historical, medical, pedagogical, psychological and cultural angles.

‘The Dr. Guislain Museum opens the debate with a two day conference in Ghent. The museum houses fascinating displays on this theme, drawn from its medical collection, photo collection and collection of outsider art.

‘Lectures will be simultaneously interpreted in Dutch, French and English.’

Registration costs €90 (or €45 for students). For further information, or to register, email info@museumdrguislain.be or visit this link.

Used by permission of Museum Dr Guislain