“May all Be Shattered into God”: Mary Barnes and Her Journey through Madness in Kingsley Hall
Journal of Medical Humanities June 2, 2018 Adrian Chapman 5 citations
This article provides the first in-depth reading of Mary Barnes and Joseph Berke's book "Mary Barnes: Two Accounts of a Journey through Madness," which documents the radical therapeutic community at Kingsley Hall, London (1965-1970). The reading examines how the book offers ground-level views of anti-psychiatry that critique 1960s utopianism, particularly R.D. Laing's championing of madness as a quasi-psychedelic voyage. Barnes emerges as more than an exemplary patient or victim, revealing tensions within the anti-psychiatric movement. The analysis focuses on differences between the spiritually inclined Barnes and psychoanalytic Berke, their differences from Laing, the journey metaphor, and the conflicted setting of Kingsley Hall.