I am a doctoral student in history, gender studies and disability history at Umeå University since September 2024. My dissertation project investigates experiences of psychiatric care in Sweden between 1939 and 1949, with a particular focus on gender. The primary source material consists of letters sent to the author Astrid Väring after the publication of her novel I som här inträden… (1944). Additional sources include newspaper articles and patient files.
The purpose of the project is to analyse how gender, social norms, and power structures influenced individuals' encounters with institutional psychiatric care during the development of the Swedish welfare state. The dissertation offers a perspective based on patient experiences and situates these within the broader political and societal context of mid-20th-century healthcare.