Diana Louis, Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and American Culture has published her book, Colored Insane: Slavery, Asylums, and Mental Illness in the Nineteenth Century with Columbia University Press.
In Colored Insane, Professor Louis “explores Black experiences and views of mental disability in the nineteenth century, shedding light on the lives and struggles of the ‘colored insane.’” She highlights how, “even as white medical professionals pathologized the enslaved as suffering from ‘drapetomania,’ portrayed slavery as beneficial to Black mental health, or cast African-derived spiritual beliefs and practices as signs of madness, Black people developed their own complex perspectives on mental disability.”
Professor Louis was recently featured on Michigan Public’s Stateside, New Haven Independent's Up Early! Lovebabz Lovetalk, and WABE’s Closer Look to discuss the book.
In conversation with April Baer on Stateside, Professor Louis discusses the advantages of addressing mental illness as mental disability, as she does throughout the book. She notes the cruciality of incorporating biological, physiological, social, and cultural factors in the consideration of mental well-being. She says, “when we rethink the history of psychiatry to include black voices, we get a fuller story not only about African Americans and their humanity, but about cultures of violence and institutions that are meant to help people.”
Speaking on Lovebabz Lovetalk, Professor Louis discusses contemporary ramifications of the mental health institutions of this era. She says, “the mental health field has a lot of work to do to meet the needs of Black women, and Black people in general. It needs to be more culturally responsive and also meet people where they are.”
Throughout the book and in these interviews, Professor Louis makes clear the importance of hearing and uplifting Black voices in the discussion of mental health. She says, “I want to change the discourse about the fact that Black people think about mental illness in terms of stigma and in terms of silence . . . What we need to do is start turning to those voices and see what we’ve been saying, and see what kind of solutions, and what kind of ideas come out of the way Black people talk about it because that is one of the sources of solving problems.”
Concluding her conversation with Rose Scott on Closer Look, Professor Louis speaks to the importance of the stories she highlights in the book: “We need stories. We are in a time where reading is more important than anything because it gives us access to other people’s stories and when we read their stories we get to universal truths. . . Black people have always been talking about mental disability, we just have to look to their voices.”
Hear the Stateside episode here (minute 32:45).
Hear the Up Early! Lovebabz Lovetalk episode here (Facebook) or here (Youtube).
Hear the Closer Look episode here.
Congratulations, Professor Louis!
