Mad Children: Stories of Youth in Canadian Insane Asylums, 1880-1930

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dc.contributor.advisorGeoffrey Reaume
dc.contributor.authorKira Aislinn Smith
dc.date.accessioned2024-11-07T11:02:47Z
dc.date.available2024-11-07T11:02:47Z
dc.date.copyright2024-06-05
dc.date.issued2024-11-07
dc.date.updated2024-11-07T11:02:46Z
dc.degree.disciplineCritical Disability Studies
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractMad Children stories the lived experiences of youth who were placed in Canadian insane asylums from 1880 to 1930. The author uses archival materials and creative writing to move away from the medical model of understanding mad histories towards a focus on the children institutionalized across Canada. The author begins with an interrogation of the land the asylums were built on to engage with the settler colonial foundations of Canadian insane asylums. This chapter immediately situates the history of asylums within the displacement of Indigenous people and colonization. Additionally, this archival project is situated in a decades long call to do mad histories differently in a way that centres the experiences of the people held within the institutional walls. In situating the historiography and archival materials related to mad history, the author positions the use of blended writing to tell different kinds of stories. The stories that make up the bulk of the chapters come from archival records of children from British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Prince Edward Island. Each chapter focuses on different elements that influence the lives of children within these facilities. The first story situates the reader in the development of eugenics, child psychiatry and wellbeing, and moral therapy. From there, the author details two different encounters with the forces that deported asylum inmates, the influence of anti-Asian rhetoric, the impact of settler colonialism, the interconnection with juvenile delinquency, what children thought of their surroundings, and the formulation of girlhood in the context of empire. In telling specific stories in their wider context, the author weaves in moments of discussion about other children who share similarities to the stories. Ultimately, the author reveals the consequences of systems that placed children in asylums and imagines what these encounters may have looked like for different inmates. As she moves through the stories, the author reveals not only how kids resisted and complied with colonial treatments of madness, but also, she argues that institutionalization is never the appropriate choice when considering how to care for people, especially children.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10315/42406
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectCanadian history
dc.subjectMental health
dc.subjectSociology
dc.subject.keywordsdisability
dc.subject.keywordsdisability studies
dc.subject.keywordscritical disability studies
dc.subject.keywordsmad studies
dc.subject.keywordsmental health
dc.subject.keywordsmad
dc.subject.keywordsmadness
dc.subject.keywordsmental illness
dc.subject.keywordshistory
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian history
dc.subject.keywordspublic history
dc.subject.keywordssocial history
dc.subject.keywordsmedical history
dc.subject.keywordspsychiatric history
dc.subject.keywordsasylums
dc.subject.keywordsinsane asylums
dc.subject.keywordsinstitutionalization
dc.subject.keywordscolonialism
dc.subject.keywordssettler colonialism
dc.subject.keywordschild
dc.subject.keywordschildren
dc.subject.keywordschildhood
dc.subject.keywordschildhood studies
dc.subject.keywordsadolescents
dc.subject.keywordsyouth
dc.subject.keywordsadolescence
dc.subject.keywordsteens
dc.subject.keywordsteenagers
dc.subject.keywordsblended writing
dc.subject.keywordsfiction
dc.subject.keywordsmethod
dc.subject.keywordscreative writing
dc.subject.keywordscritical fabulations
dc.subject.keywordsarchive
dc.subject.keywordsarchival research
dc.subject.keywordssilence
dc.subject.keywordsimmigration
dc.subject.keywordsgirlhood
dc.subject.keywordsIndigenous
dc.subject.keywordsChinese
dc.subject.keywordsmoral therapy
dc.subject.keywordseugenics
dc.subject.keywordsOntario
dc.subject.keywordsBritish Columbia
dc.subject.keywordsPrince Edward Island
dc.subject.keywordsManitoba
dc.subject.keywordsSelkirk
dc.subject.keywordsBrandon
dc.subject.keywordsToronto
dc.subject.keywordsCharlottetown
dc.subject.keywordsFalconwood
dc.subject.keywordsNew Westminster
dc.subject.keywordsCoquitlam
dc.subject.keywordssocial welfare
dc.subject.keywordsreforms
dc.subject.keywordswellbeing
dc.subject.keywordsabolitionist
dc.subject.keywordsabolitionism
dc.subject.keywordsstories
dc.subject.keywordsstory
dc.subject.keywordsexperience
dc.subject.keywordsexperiences
dc.subject.keywordslife family
dc.subject.keywordscase files
dc.subject.keywordscase file
dc.titleMad Children: Stories of Youth in Canadian Insane Asylums, 1880-1930
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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