Alice Hymna Ramnehill

About Alice Hymna Ramnehill

I am a doctoral student in History of Ideas since September 2023 and part of Doctoral school in the History of Political Thought. In my dissertation, I examine political subjectivity in the socio-political magazine Pockettidningen R. The magazine was founded in 1970 by journalist Hans Nestius and was run by R-associations, such as RSMH (National Association for Social and Mental Health) and KRUM (National Association for the Humanization of Correctional Services). I will examine the years of publication 1970-1992 and focus on what was specific about the social reportage of the magazine R and how the polyphony of journalistic idiom conveyed a political content that brought together multiple social movements. The questions of the thesis focus both on how the "welfare society" was problematized and diagnosed in Pockettidningen R, but also on how visions of the future and utopias were expressed and what horizons of expectation were articulated. In summary, the work will investigate how the Pocket magazine R functioned as a political medium for a number of social movements and subjects who wanted to work for a welfare that included everyone. The study has the potential to contribute to a deeper understanding of the R associations' involvement in how welfare institutions such as psychiatry and social services changed during the 1980s and 1990s in Sweden.

My broader research interests are the political history of psychology. I have a background as a psychologist and I'm interested in how psychological theories have taken place in media and political contexts, for example "mass psychology" and "therapy culture". In summary I'm interested in how psychological perspectives have become part of general education and self-understanding for individuals and collectives during modernity and postmodernity.