Configurations of Compulsory Care and Alternative Treatments in Beate Grimsrud's En dåre fri and Linda Boström Knausgård's Oktoberbarn.

This article addresses the critique of Swedish compulsory psychiatric care as it has been portrayed in novels and art projects over the last fifteen years. The aim is to examine how Swedish compulsory care is portrayed from a patient perspective by analysing two autobiographical novels: Beate Grimsr...

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Publicado en:Scandinavian Studies Vol. 97; no. 1; pp. 50 - 75
Autor principal: Pettersson, Cecilia
Formato: Literary Criticism
Publicado: University of Wisconsin Press 2025
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Configurations of Compulsory Care and Alternative Treatments in Beate Grimsrud's En dåre fri and Linda Boström Knausgård's Oktoberbarn.
      aug:
        au: Pettersson, Cecilia
      su:
        October Child (Book)
        A Fool, Free (Book)
        Physicians' attitudes
        Restraint of patients
        Autobiographical fiction
        Patients' attitudes
        21st century (Literary period)
      sug:
        subj:
          October Child (Book)
          A Fool, Free (Book)
          Physicians' attitudes
          Restraint of patients
          Autobiographical fiction
          Patients' attitudes
          21st century (Literary period)
      keyword:
        Beate Grimsrud
        illness narratives
        Linda Boström Knausgård
        literature and medicine
        mad studies
        psychiatric compulsory care
      ab: This article addresses the critique of Swedish compulsory psychiatric care as it has been portrayed in novels and art projects over the last fifteen years. The aim is to examine how Swedish compulsory care is portrayed from a patient perspective by analysing two autobiographical novels: Beate Grimsrud's En dåre fri , 2010 [A fool, free] and Linda Boström Knausgård's Oktoberbarn , 2019 [October child]. Within Scandinavian research on illness narratives, depictions of contemporary compulsory care have received little to no attention, which makes this study particularly needed. Analysis of representations in the novels is put in relation to the understanding of compulsory care expressed in recent medical literature and to humanistic research on psychiatric care and treatment.The analysis shows that the novels depict Swedish compulsory care and its coercive measures—chemical restraint, physical restraint and electroconvulsive therapy—in highly critical terms. The power of doctors and their attitudes towards patients are also criticised, while relationships with other healthcare professionals are portrayed as being based more on equality and thus as more constructive. Through depictions of alternative treatment methods in the novels—conversation, memory work, and writing—the novels also show that another kind of compulsory care is possible, in which coercion is downplayed and interpersonal relationships and the spoken or written word are in focus.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
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    language: English
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