Constructing docile body: an Ethnographical Study of the Pabna Mental Hospital

This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Social Science in Anthropology, 2019.

Detaylı Bibliyografya
Yazar: Islam, Moumita
Diğer Yazarlar: Alam, S.M Shamsul
Materyal Türü: Tez
Dil:English
Baskı/Yayın Bilgisi: Brac University 2019
Konular:
Online Erişim:http://hdl.handle.net/10361/12374
id 10361-12374
record_format dspace
spelling 10361-123742019-09-30T06:01:56Z Constructing docile body: an Ethnographical Study of the Pabna Mental Hospital Islam, Moumita Alam, S.M Shamsul Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Brac University Pabna Mental Hospital: Docile body Ethnographical study Ethnology This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Social Science in Anthropology, 2019. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (page 48). The word ‘mad’ or ‘madness’ is very commonly used as a word that refers to several diversified person or situation. It has dissimilar meanings in different circumstances, varies from perspective to perspective that can have both ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ vibe. For example we can say that sometimes ‘madness’ indicates to a certain condition where a person becomes desperate for anything or any person. Besides, it is known as a severe mental illness. Mental illness is some kind of disorder that affects someone’s mental condition, stability, mood, thinking, behavior etc.1 In Bangla the meaning of ‘Mad’ is ‘পাগল’2 which does not carry a simple meaning either. It rather replicates a situation where a person becomes useless for the society or people and cannot do anything properly. Besides, It portrays a man violently to some extant with disrespect. Most of the time, the causes behind mental illness are unclear. It can come as a result of any kind of mental pressure, problems, anxiety, depression or even genetically. However, absolute cure of mental illness is difficult according to medical science. It needs altered treatment, specialized and controlled environment. Hence, mental patients need different treatment that includes comfortable environment as well, which often becomes impossible to be provided at home. Therefore, mental hospitals or mental asylums are there for their treatment. Mental hospitals provide specialized treatments for mental disorder that cannot be compared to other physical disorders. Mental hospitals are like institutions that have some certain rules, follow some discipline and the people live there are bound to follow those. However, mental hospitals mostly have residential arrangements for their patients as they need to be kept under observation and maintain a particular routine for everything. As mental hospitals have residence for their patients, they must keep their patients under surveillance, control and make them follow some rules to keep them under discipline for maintaining certain order or system in the hospital residence. Now the issue might come in mind that surveillance and control of any authority in any institution might harm individual agency. Besides, keeping several people under surveillance to make them ‘well’ cannot be done without having power relation related to it. As mentally ills have unstable mental condition, they often fail to protest for their individual agency and independence. In my research, I have tried to understand the individual agency3 of mentally ill people in asylum, how power is being deployed on ‘docile’ body and the idea of surveillance. Moreover, I have tried to explain the dichotomy of sanity and insanity. Lastly, to know about the social construction and socio-cultural phenomena regarding insanity in the context of Bangladesh. And to conduct my research I have chosen Pabna Mental Hospital, located in Hemayetpur, Pabna as my field. Moumita Islam BSS in Anthropology 2019-07-16T08:37:15Z 2019-07-16T08:37:15Z 2019 2019-05 Thesis ID 15217005 http://hdl.handle.net/10361/12374 en Brac University theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. 48 pages application/pdf Brac University
institution Brac University
collection Institutional Repository
language English
topic Pabna Mental Hospital:
Docile body
Ethnographical study
Ethnology
spellingShingle Pabna Mental Hospital:
Docile body
Ethnographical study
Ethnology
Islam, Moumita
Constructing docile body: an Ethnographical Study of the Pabna Mental Hospital
description This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Social Science in Anthropology, 2019.
author2 Alam, S.M Shamsul
author_facet Alam, S.M Shamsul
Islam, Moumita
format Thesis
author Islam, Moumita
author_sort Islam, Moumita
title Constructing docile body: an Ethnographical Study of the Pabna Mental Hospital
title_short Constructing docile body: an Ethnographical Study of the Pabna Mental Hospital
title_full Constructing docile body: an Ethnographical Study of the Pabna Mental Hospital
title_fullStr Constructing docile body: an Ethnographical Study of the Pabna Mental Hospital
title_full_unstemmed Constructing docile body: an Ethnographical Study of the Pabna Mental Hospital
title_sort constructing docile body: an ethnographical study of the pabna mental hospital
publisher Brac University
publishDate 2019
url http://hdl.handle.net/10361/12374
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