In a society dominated by men, it took a long time before women could be heard or even seen. And it is neither a secret nor a surprise to say that many women’s voices remained closely guarded inside the walls of psychiatric hospitals. Few women that were institutionalized had a powerful enough voice or talent that enabled their works to resonate outside of those walls. The few that did are still echoing in society today.
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
Emma Santos
In the 1970s, she was frequently passing in and out of psychiatric hospitals. Her doctor, Roger Gentis, asked her to write about her life, which she did. One book after the other (she published 8 books) document her experience inside the walls of the asylum – walls which never ceased to haunt her.
her voice and her writing were very powerful
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
Valerie Valere
Valerie Valere was hospitalized in an asylum at 13 years of age for anorexia. Her treatment lasted a few months, which was long enough to traumatize her deeply. A few years after she left the hospital, she wrote a biography about her experiences (Le Pavillon des infants fous). Writing about her traumatic and involuntary imprisonment allowed her to finally talk about things she had locked away; she was one of the lucky ones who had a chance to be heard for the first time. When her book was published she became very popular in France (she is still quite popular today). For the first time, someone was listening to her voice. She published a few other books before dying at the age of 21. The causes of her death is still unknown today (though there are rumors of medication overdose).
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
Janet Frame
Janet Frame is a New Zealand writer. Her childhood was marred by the drowning of her two sisters. In 1945, at the end of her teens, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and interned in an asylum. Inside its walls, she received hundred of electroshocks. It is also during this period that she started writing. This writing saved her from a lobotomy because she received a literature price just prior to the surgery. In 1961, her novel about her experiences in the asylum, “Faces in the Water,” was published – making her very popular. She continued to write all her life. She died in 2004 of leukemia. She is one of New Zealand’s most prized writers and there is even a movie about her “An Angel at my Table” by much lauded director Jane Campion.
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
Mary Barnes
Mary Barnes was a British painter who was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She voluntary admitted herself to Kinsley Hall in London, which was an experimental and anti-psychiatry community created by Ronal Laing. The object of this community was to cure patients without the use of psychiatry. She eventually recovered completely from her schizophrenia and became a successful painter. She became popular after the publication of her book about her experiences in Kinsley Hall that was written in collaboration with her psychiatrist at that time, Joseph Berke.
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
Unica Zurn
Unica Zurn was a German writer. She came from a rich family but was emotionally very unstable. She met the artist Hans Bellmer and he introduced her to the surrealist artistic movement that was popular at the time. She created anagrams and drawings and she was talented enough to be published in Berlin’s gallery, Springer. A few years later, she met Henri Michaux, the surrealist writer, and her new friendship with him had a profound effect on her emotional well-being. She wrote “Der Mann I’m Jasmin,” a beautiful, poetic and profound book about the man that she loved. Soon after, she would be hospitalized in a psychiatric clinic because of depression and psychosis. She tried to kill herself. It was to be the first of multiple stays in psychiatric clinic – in Berlin and France. She killed herself in 1970
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
Camille Claudel
Camille Claudel was a French sculptor. She is known for her tumultuous relationship with Auguste Rodin. At first, he was her teacher, but quickly, as he became aware of her talent, he began to consult her for every piece of art he was making. They started to create sculptures together but Anguste Rodin got all the media attention and Camille Claudel was still seen only as his student. Eventually, she took off on her own but didn’t get the recognition she deserved. In 1913, she was interned in a psychiatric hospital in France and stayed there for the rest of her life. She was miserable there and stopped sculpting – receiving only a few visit from her brother (the other members of her family just ignored her). In 1943, she died of malnutrition, alone and depressed in the hospital.
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
Aloize Corbaz
Aloize was a Swiss artist. She was hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital during the first World War for schizophrenia. It was only after 1920 that she started drawing and painting. When Jean Dubuffet, the theorist that created the concept of Art Brut, included her work in his collection, she became a major representative of the movement.
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
Zelda Fitzgerald
Zelda Fitzgerald was married to the famous writer Francis Scott Fitzgerald in 1920. They were both regular members of the most prestigious literary clubs in the USA and in Europe. Their glamorous life where champagne was easily accessible had a perverse effect on the couple: Scott slowly became a paralyzed alcoholic and Zelda’s emotional instability led her to multiple psychiatric hospitalizations. In 1930, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia. In 1932, in Towson psychiatric clinic, she wrote “Save Me the Waltz,” an autobiographic novel about her life with her husband. In 1948 she died in a huge fire in the psychiatric hospital where she was staying (Highland Mental Hospital).
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
Suzanna Kaysen
Suzanna Kaysen wrote “Girl, Interrupted” in 1993. It is a memoir of her hospitalization in MacLean Psychiatric Hospital in 1967. She stayed there for eighteen months for depression and borderline personality. In 1999, James Mangold created a cinematic adaptation of her book in which she is portrayed by Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie interprets brilliantly another patient.
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
Qasam se maine inn main se kisi ka naam nahin suna
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath was a writer and American poet who was married to the poet laureate Ted Hughes. Soon, her talent as a writer was uncovered. She published her first poem at the age of eight years-old and she never stopped publishing. In her life, she published a dozen books (all but one were poetry); her only novel was The Bell Jar (1963). Her life was a dark and heavy struggle against her bipolar disorder that she lost when she killed herself in 1963 at the age of 30
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
Qasam se maine inn main se kisi ka naam nahin suna
tu ab sun le :p
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
tu ab sun le :p
apne haan koi talent nazar nahin aaya? Seema Ghazal, Umera Ahmed, Sarwat Nazeer, Maha Malik, Farhat Ishtiyaq... kiya yehi talent hai hamae haan?
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
^ inn mei se kaun kaun mental hospital gaya hai, i mentioned about those writers who were mentally ill, topic ka title tu parh le 
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
unho ne boht so ko pagal khane bhijwane main bharpoor kirdar ada kia hai 
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
for example 
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
GK Ki kami 
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
Fatima Jinnah(1893 -1967)
Also known as Madr-e-Millat, mother of the nation, Fatima Jinnah’s name is an important one among the leaders of Pakistan’s independence movement. Though she is most loved for being an ardent supporter of her brother, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of Muslim India, there is much more to Fatima Jinnah.
Fatima Jinnah was born in 1893. When the Jinnahs lost their father in 1901, Fatima came under the guardianship of her older brother. Encouraged by her brother, she completed her education, living in a hostel while attending Dr Ahmad Dental College. In 1923, at a time when taking up a profession was considered inappropriate for girls from Muslim families, Fatima Jinnah opened her own dental practice in Calcutta. She had the full support of her brother, yet faced opposition from the rest of the family. When Quaid-e-Azam’s wife, Rutti Jinnah, passed away leaving behind a daughter, Fatima Jinnah gave up her practice and went to live with her brother taking charge of the house and her young niece.
During the years that followed, Fatima Jinnah accompanied her brother on many of his official tours. Professor Sharif al Mujahid writes in his article, An enduring legacy, Dawn, July, 2003, “People do not realize that just by accompanying Jinnah wherever he went during the 1940s, Fatima Jinnah was teaching Muslim women to stand shoulder to shoulder with men during the freedom struggle. Numerous pictures of the period show Fatima Jinnah walking alongside Jinnah and not behind him. The message was loud and clear and it was one both the brother and sister wished to convey to the nation.”
She also joined the All India Muslim League and attended the annual sessions. She helped form the All India Muslim Women Students Federation in 941 in Delhi. “Fatima Jinnah’s contribution in the social development sector has, however, been ignored somewhat. This has largely been overshadowed by her political role despite the fact that she, along with Begum Rana Liaquat Ali Khan, made the greatest contribution in the realm of women’s awakening and participation in national affairs and their empowerment,” wrote professor Sharif al Mujahid.
The height of her political accomplishments came towards the end of her life when, in 1965 she defied tradition by challenging Ayub Khan in a tight race for the office of President of Pakistan. “Even a conservative party like the Jamaat-i-Islami accepted her as a woman presidential candidate.” (Story of Pakistan, Fatima Jinnah 1893-1967).
In the same Dawn article as mentioned above, Professor Mujahid continues, “Her candidature in the 1965 presidential elections settled once and for all, all the tricky questions about whether a woman could be the head of a Muslim state. In the circumstances it was her candidature alone that could have induced a favorable fatwa from Maulana Maududi. And once that was acquired, the controversial issue ceased to exist for all time to come. This represents a singular contribution towards women’s empowerment and their participation in public life in Pakistan.”
If Fatima JInnah serves as a role model for Pakistani girls, she is indeed a fine one for she had a life filled achievements.
Re: female artists who were institutionalized
lols. DA was discussing Pagal khwateen