Marina Planas

 

 

 

Mediation with the mental health collective of Son Espases.

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Taking as a reference the classic horror film, The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus, with have been working, intervening, and generating, with the mental health collective of Son Espases, a panel of archival images to reflect on the different practices of psychiatry and photography that years later have proven not to have a scientific basis that has been able to support them.

 

During the last decades of the 19th century, scientists increasingly attempted to explain psychiatric illness, criminal behavior, and cognitive dysfunction in terms of defective biology. Many researchers looked for clues in external body anatomy, and body shape, head configuration, and facial features were measured and analyzed. The rise of photography contributed to these efforts, as photographs not only allowed scientists to document their evidence but also facilitated the mass reproduction and distribution of relevant images. Unfortunately, scientists looking for anatomical signs often exaggerated their findings and their diagnoses often lacked scientific evidence. People were misdiagnosed, treated, and even institutionalized based on a single anatomical feature and symptom.