Långbro Hospital, Sweden—From Psychiatric Institution to Digital Museum: A Critical Discourse Analysis

• Published in: Space and culture Vol. 25; no. 2; pp. 282 - 294
• Main Author: Punzi, Elisabeth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.05.2022; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Colonialism; Critical theory; Discourse analysis; Hospitalization; Hotels & motels; Human rights; Institutions; Museums; Oppression; Psychiatric hospitals; Residential areas; Sweden; heritage; de-institutionalization; psychiatry; digitization; Sites of Conscience
• ISSN: 1206-3312; 1552-8308
• DOI: 10.1177/12063312211066543

Sites of oppression might be remembered in ways that contribute to dialogues about human rights and justice, exemplified by Sites of Conscience. Oppression was commonplace in former psychiatric institutions, yet such institutions are often subject to strategic forgetting and transformed into business parks, hotels, or residential areas. This article concerns Långbro Hospital, a digital museum presenting the former psychiatric institution Långbro, Sweden, now transformed into a residential area. I discuss how the former institution becomes a digital nonplace in which patients tend to be objectified or excluded, and the park and the buildings in which oppression occurred are reduced to representing beauty and functionality. I relate the analysis to digital Sites of Conscience such as British Museum of Colonialism and Pennhurst Memorial and Preservation Alliance and, thereby, show that thoughtful digitization might recognize prior as well as current injustice and oppression and contribute to change.