Academic Focus  

The project "Prison of Madness" studies the history of insanity in Norway from 1800 to 2020. The academic focus is on the relationship between mental illness and crime. This branch of psychiatry is now referred to as forensic psychiatry.

At an institutional level, the archives from the Criminal Asylum and Reitgjerdet Hospital, two Norwegian forensic psychiatric institutions, spanning from 1895 to 1987, form the empirical foundation of the project.

The study addresses several key questions, including:

• How has society's perception of insanity and dangerousness evolved over the past two centuries?
• In what ways and to what extent have coercion and coercive measures been applied in forensic psychiatry??
• How were the institutions run and understood by society?
• How have sex offenders perceived and understood their own masculinity?
• Why were there no women in forensic psychiatric institutions, and where were dangerous women confined?
• The women's movement's view on sex offenders.
• The doctors' and caregivers' understandings of their own work.
• The dynamics between various professional groups in the treatment of criminally insane individuals (including doctors, lawyers, theologians, etc.)
• How have the criteria for admission to forensic psychiatric institutions evolved over the past 150 years?

Collaboration

The project boasts a vast national and international network. We engage in international networks and conferences on the history of psychiatry, as well as interdisciplinary networks focused on the use of coercion in psychiatry.

Organization

The project comprises a collection of individual projects, each with its own funding. PhD candidates have graduated from the project, with another dissertation expected in the spring semester of 2025, while one has just commenced. Approximately forty master's students have also graduated from the project.

The National Museum of Justice

In 2015, project members collaborated with staff at the National Museum of Justice to create the exhibition 'Prison of Madness,' which continues to operate both as a stationary and traveling exhibition. Additionally, the project has partnered with the National Health Archive as a pilot initiative.

Publications

Since 2010, the project has generated a substantial number of national and international publications.