Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies

Madhouse

Reclaiming the History of Learning Difficulties through Acting and Activism

Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies (2021), 15, (3), 347–363.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3828/jlcds.2021.27
Language
English
Pages
17

Abstract

Until the very end of the twentieth century the history of learning difficulties was subsumed into other histories, of psychiatry, of special education and, indeed, of disability. Initiatives to enable people with learning difficulties and their families to record their own histories and contribute to the historical record are both recent and powerful. Much of this work has been led or supported by The Open University’s Social History of Learning Disability Research (SHLD) group and its commitment to developing “inclusive history.” The article tells the story of the Madhouse Project in which actors with learning difficulties, stimulated by the story of historian activist Mabel Cooper and supported by the SHLD group, learned about and then offered their own interpretations of that history, including its present-day resonances. Through a museum exhibition they curated, and through an immersive theatre performance, the actors used the history of institutions to alert a wider public to the abuses of the past, and the continuing marginalization and exclusion of people with learning difficulties. This is an outstanding example of history’s potential to stimulate activism.

Access Token

FormatArticle

£25.00
READ THIS ARTICLE
References
Full Text
PDF
If you have private access to this content, please log in with your username and password here

Works Cited

Access all Areas, Sue Ledger, and Jan Walmsley. Sharing Learning Disability History: Inclusive Methods and Activities. London: Access all Areas, 2019. Web. Google Scholar

Advocreate. No Longer Shut Up: The Story of Mabel Cooper. 2015. Web. Google Scholar

Atkinson, Dorothy and Mabel Cooper. “Parallel Stories.” Crossing Boundaries: Change and Continuity in the History of Learning Disability. Ed. Lindey Brigham, Dorothy Atkinson, Mark Jackson, Sheena Rolph, and Jan Walmsley. Kidderminster: BILD, 2000. 15-26. Print. Google Scholar

Atwood, Margaret. The Testaments. London: Chatto and Windus. 2019. Print. Google Scholar

Brownlee-Chapman, Chloe, Rohhss Chapman, Clive Eardley, Sarah Forster, Victoria Green, Helen Graham, Elizabeth Harkness, Kassie Headon, Pam Humphreys, Nigel Ingham, Sue Ledger, Valerie May, Andy Minnion, Elizabeth Tilley, and Louise Towson. “Between the Personal and the Public: Collaboratively Designing an Inclusive Archive of Learning Disability History.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 24.8 (2017): 889-903. Print. Google Scholar

Callus, Anne-Marie. “The Cloak of Incompetence: Representations of People with Intellectual Disability in Film.” Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies 13.2 (2019): 177-94. Print. Google Scholar

CEPF and Jan Walmsley. Years of CEPF 1990-2011: A Journey and a Celebration. Kettering: CEPF, 2012. Print. Google Scholar

Cooper, Mabel. “Mabel Cooper’s Life Story.” Forgotten Lives: Exploring the History of Learning Disability. Ed. Atkinson, Dorothy, Jackson, Mark, and Walmsley, Jan. Kidderminster: BILD, 1997. 21-34. Print. Google Scholar

Ledger, Susan, Jan Walmsley, and members of Access All Areas. “‘Madhouse’: Performance Artists with Learning Disabilities Sharing the History of Institutions.” Global Perspective on Activism and Advocacy. Ed. Karen Soldatic and Kelley Johnson. London: Routledge, 2020. 35-51. Print. Google Scholar

Mitchell, Duncan, Rannveig Traustadottir, Rohhss Chapman, Louise Townson, Nigel Ingham, and Sue Ledger, eds. Exploring Experience of Advocacy by People with Learning Disabilities: Testimonies of Resistance. London: JKP, 2007. Print. Google Scholar

Rolph, Sheena and Dorothy Atkinson. “Emotion in Narrating the History of Learning Disability.” Oral History 38 (2010): 53-63. Print. Google Scholar

Samuel, Raphael. Theatres of Memory. London: Verso, 1994. Print. Google Scholar

Scott-Brown, Sophie. “Setting the Stage: Performing Politics in Theatres of Memory.” Rethinking History 23:9 (2019): 304-23. Print. Google Scholar

Speak Out. Our History Our Voice. 2019. Web. 17 Mar. 2021. Google Scholar

Van Puyenbroeck, Joris and Bea Maes. “A Review of Critical, Person-Centred and Clinical Approaches to Reminiscence Work for People with Intellectual Disabilities.” International Journal of Disability, Development and Education 55.1 (2008): 43-60. Print. Google Scholar

Walmsley, Jan and Simon Jarrett, Simon, eds. Transnational Perspectives on Intellectual Disability in the Twentieth Century: People, Policy and Practice. Bristol: Policy Press, 2019. Print Google Scholar

Walmsley, Jan, Sue Ledger, Zara Jane Arnold, Paul Christian, and Elizabth Tilley. Madhouse Re:Exit: Evaluation Summary. London: Access all Areas, 2019. Print. Google Scholar

Westerhof, Gerben J., Janny Beernink, and Anneke Sools. “Who Am I? A Life Story Intervention for Persons with Intellectual Disability and Psychiatric Problems.” Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities 54.3 (2016): 173-86. Print. Google Scholar

Wigham, Sarah, John L. Taylor, and Chris Hatton. “A Prospective Study of the Relationship Between Adverse Life Events and Trauma in Adults with Mild to Moderate Intellectual Disabilities.” Journal of Intellectual Disability Research 58.12 (2014): 1131-40. Print. Google Scholar

If you have private access to this content, please log in with your username and password here

Details

Author details

Tilley, Elizabeth

Christian, Paul

Ledger, Susan

Walmsley, Jan