"May all Be Shattered into God": Mary Barnes and her journey through madness in Kingsley Hall

Chapman, A. (2020) "May all Be Shattered into God": Mary Barnes and her journey through madness in Kingsley Hall. Journal of Medical Humanities, 41(2), pp. 207-228. (doi: 10.1007/s10912-018-9517-1) (PMID:29860647)

Abstract

Contributing to renewed scholarly interest in R. D. Laing and his circle, and in the radical therapeutic community of Kingsley Hall, London (1965-1970), this article offers the first article-length reading of Mary Barnes’ and Joseph Berke’s Mary Barnes: Two Accounts of a Journey through Madness. This text offers views of anti-psychiatry ‘on the ground’ that critique the 1960s utopianism of Laing’s championing of madness as a metanoic, quasi-psychedelic voyage. Barnes’ story, too, reveals tensions within the anti-psychiatric movement. Moving beyond existing criticism of the text, Barnes, it is argued here, emerges as far more than an exemplary patient, victim or anti-psychiatric puppet. Particular attention is paid in this reading of Two Accounts to the following: the ways in which the spiritually inclined Barnes and the psychoanalytic Berke differ in this dual narrative text; the ways in which each differs from Laing; the metaphor of the journey; and the setting of Barnes’ story in the often conflicted, experimental household of Kingsley Hall.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Funding: Wellcome Trust 108826/Z/15/Z.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: No
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Chapman, Dr Adrian
• Authors: Chapman, A.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Literature
• Journal Name: Journal of Medical Humanities
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 1041-3545
• ISSN (Online): 1573-3645
• Published Online: 02 June 2018
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2018 The Author(s)
• First Published: First published in Journal of Medical Humanities 41(2): 207-228
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License