Developing Mad Methodologies, Moving Toward a New “Patient Perspective”

To date, the history of madness has been (largely) the province of medical historians and sociologists, who, despite their calls since the 1980s to engage with “patients,” have done little to develop the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological tools and frameworks that would better illuminate the many lived experiences and multiple insights of mad people. In this presentation, I draw upon my work on madness, mad people, and asylums in the United States to show how developments in the emerging field of mad studies, as well as disability studies, can help scholars create new conceptualizations of the subjectivity of patienthood and the agency of mad people. I begin with a review of the historiography as it specifically relates to madness and patienthood. I then move into a discussion of mad methodologies and radical compassion as they have been developed by mad studies scholars. I use research from my book, Writing Mad Lives in the Age of the Asylum, to show how what I am calling a mad people’s history of madness can help historians and other scholars reconceptualize the “patient perspective.” I conclude with a consideration of the challenges facing historians and other scholars in their rethinking of the “patient perspective” and some final thoughts for moving forward.

Michael Rembis is a professor in the Department of History and the director of the Center for Disability Studies at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). He specializes in 19th- and 20th-century U.S. history, disability history, mad people's history, and the history of institutionalization and eugenics. His most recent book, Writing Mad Lives in the Age of the Asylum, was published by Oxford University Press in 2024. He was the lead scholar on the NYCDOE project, Hidden Voices: Americans with Disabilities in United States History also published in 2024. Rembis is a principle investigator on the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded Communities of Care Project (2023-2026).