Norway

Born in 1992 in Oslo, Norway
Johanna is a student at the University of Oslo, studying the second year as a bachelor student in linguistics. (Last updated 2013)

"In the Psychiatry’s Shadow" (2011)

In her essay “In the psychiatry’s shadow, Johanne examines the psychiatric system of Norway in the early to mid 20th century. She followed the story of her great-grandmother Jenny, born in a small town in Norway in 1899, who through her relationship and ultimately marriage to a man born out of wedlock, experienced firsthand the society’s negative attitudes to those who did not follow the set norms. Her family disapproved of the relationship and disowned her. Jenny died in 1961, and Johanna believes that it is very likely that she was subjected to a lobotomy and other kinds of somatic treatments such as shock therapy.

Choosing the topic for her essay was simple: throughout her life, Johanne had always heard whispered tales of my grandmother’s family and what happened to her parents. Researching the topic was not so easy. The documents containing facts regarding Jenny’s treatment were locked. So Johanne combined the sources she had: She interviewed two women in her family who knew stories about Jenny and her family.She located books at the library concerning topics such as psychiatric history, marriage throughout the ages and statistics on children born out of wedlock. And she used the internet to access Norwegian statistics, digital archives and many more.

For her essay, Johanne Bredeli was awarded first prize in the Norwegian History Competition 2010/2011 ("My family in history").