Poetry and madness have long been intertwined in the popular imagination. History abounds with poets, whose inspiration and insight into life and the human condition have been attributed to experiences of madness or, in medical terms, mental illness. Poetry has had an important role in the lives of those who have treated madness too. Throughout time psychiatrists have also written poetry in search of creative outlets and new ways of understanding their patients and work.

In this two-part workshop, we will explore the poetic representations of madness from two distinct perspectives: the patient's and the doctor's. Examining poems written on both sides of the clinical encounter, we will reflect on poetry's role in capturing the complex experience of mental distress and the relationship between doctor and patient throughout history.

Texts will be provided in advance of the sessions.

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Mila Daskalova moved from Bulgaria to Edinburgh in 2012 to study literature and never left. She is a researcher and lecturer at the University of Glasgow interested in the history of psychiatry and the role of literature in the representation and treatment of mental illness. She founded and co-edited Podslon (2021-2022), a Bulgarian magazine that explored mental health and illness through art and literature. She is currently working on her first book, News from the Asylum: The Nineteenth-Century Asylum Periodical in Britain, America and Beyond.

Image reused under a CC-BY licence ( 9 artworks depicting the brain | Wellcome Collection) by Sarah Grice.

The Mind in Verse: Reading Poetry about Madness