The 'Colouring of the Psychosis': Interpreting Insanity in the Primitive Mind

How did Aboriginal people experience and exhibit mental disease? How did the colouring of black insanity differ from that of white madness? And what could the study of Aboriginal insanity tell observers about the nature of society and evolution? These were some of the questions posed by interested white psychiatrists from the late 1880s to the early 1920s. In this article, I explore how Western medical doctors understood Aboriginal insanity during this period, and draw out some of the influences and motivations that shaped their conclusions. I also examine the occasionally unexpected ways in which interpreting insanity in the 'primitive' mind destabilised and reinforced conceptions of madness and race.