Rebirth: The life and legacy of Mary Barnes.

Mary Barnes was a notable resident at R D Laing’s experimental therapeutic community, Kingsley Hall, where she lived from 1965-1970, following a psychotic breakdown. Kingsley Hall was established as an alternative to conventional psychiatric treatment, where residents were instead encouraged to embrace their madness without medical intervention. At Kingsley Hall, Mary regressed to a state of infant-like dependency. She formed an intense therapeutic relationship with psychoanalyst, Dr Joseph (Joe) Berke who encouraged her to paint on the walls of Kingsley Hall. She co-authored a book with Joe Berke: Mary Barnes: two accounts of a journey through madness (1971). 

Following Kingsley Hall’s closure in 1970, Mary became a successful artist, creating artworks that expressed her inner turmoil and rebirth. She continued to write, publishing a book of creative writing in 1989 with Ann Scott, Something Sacred. 

Barnes’s archive collection was only recently discovered in a former stable in Falkland, Scotland. This archive collection and a selection of her artworks were acquired by Wellcome Collection in 2023 and are now undergoing cataloguing, following intensive conservation intervention. 

The archive offers a unique and untapped research opportunity to examine the legacy of Mary Barnes. Alongside Barnes’s collection, Wellcome has rich related holdings, including artworks and archives created in mental health settings, and collections documenting mental healthcare provision. Wellcome Collection also holds the archive for Dr Joseph Berke, which is currently uncatalogued.  

Potential lines of enquiry might include (but are not limited to): 

• The role of creativity and art in mental health care. 
• The cultural legacy of Mary Barnes. 
• Lived experience and the ethics of archival representation.  
• Informing contemporary mental health care through historical perspectives.   

A variety of theoretical positions and methodologies may be used to frame the project. 

You will need to meet the minimum entry requirements for our Psychology PHD programme.

Open to UK nationals and those who pay UK/home rate fees. See UKCISA for further information.

The interdisciplinary project is suitable for someone with a psychology, mental health nursing, human geography, creative arts or medical humanities background. 

The applicant should have experience of undertaking research with archives or visual art or be strongly motivated to do so. Interests in lived experience of mental illness and the history of mental health care are essential. 

Additional training will be provided as part of the University of Surrey’s doctoral programme, via the Doctoral College, and by Wellcome Collection.