History Hash Outs—Between the Mad and the Bad: Psychiatrists and Patients in Egypt’s State Asylums

The study of mental illnesses and asylums has emerged as a fundamental area of historical inquiry. Research on disability studies and the histories of mental health are growing fields encouraging a rethinking of the cultural, social, economic and political histories of the Middle East.

The history of mental asylums reflects the multiple ways in which colonial governments and modern nation-states defined their national projects and relationships with their subjects. Studying colonial asylums, psychiatry and constructions of mental illnesses is central to understanding Egypt’s history, shedding light on significant historical processes such as colonization, state building, modernization, medicalization and professionalization.

Using mental health as the lens through which to examine the colonial state and its engagement with various actors, the study examines a wide range of primary and secondary sources, including citizen petitions (‘arḍaḥāls), referral memoranda (tadhkaras), Ministry of Interior reports, Reports of the Lunacy Division and the Department of Sanitary Services and Public Health, as well as government and Foreign Office correspondences.

The study investigates the history of Egypt’s asylums and their relationship with the state, interrogating their significance to the British occupation and their role in the maintenance of order and security. It also moves beyond the asylum itself, focusing on the experiences of the asylum’s patients and their families. 

Presenter:
Yasmin Shafei
Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre D'etudes Et De Documentation Economiques, Juridiques Et Sociales - Cedej

Bio: 
Yasmin Shafei is a Postdoctoral fellow at The Center for Economic, Legal, and Social Studies and Documentation (CEDEJ) in Cairo. She holds a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern history from the American University of Beirut. She received her MA and BA in International Relations from the American University in Cairo. Prior to embarking on her Ph.D. journey, she spent 15 years working with Oxfam and the United Nations on regional issues related to refugees, gender, education, and health. Her research focuses on intersections of colonial studies and the histories of medicine and mental health. Specifically, her dissertation explores primary documents at the National Archives in Egypt and the UK to investigate the impact of British colonial rule on the development of psychiatry and Egypt’s state asylums, interrogating intersections of race, class, and gender. Her talk is based on her chapter in the upcoming book “Disability History in the Modern Middle East,” published by Bloomsbury Press. 
 

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