Understanding the past

3.6 Howard Mitchell

Howard Mitchell had a privileged position in some ways. He had lived near Lennox Castle Hospital ? he had even been born there; and he had worked there and knew many people who had also worked there, as well as people who had lived there as residents. Being on the inside when you?re finding out about a situation or a setting can bring advantages. However, there may also be disadvantages, as you will see from the next reading by Mitchell.

Activity 11 On being an insider researcher

Download and read the paper, ‘The insider researcher?, by Howard Mitchell from the link provided below. As you do so, make notes on:

1. why Mitchell felt that oral history was important for a study of Lennox Castle
2. who he interviewed
3. what advantages being an ‘insider? gave him
4. what the disadvantages were
5. any ethical issues he identifies.

Comment

1. Howard Mitchell points to oral history?s role in bringing out into the open the voices of people who tend to be marginalised or disregarded when accounts of the past are being written. He particularly wanted to shift the balance of awareness towards people who had experienced oppression and disadvantage: the patients and residents. However, he was also keen to change understandings of what the nurses? perspective was. As a nurse himself, he says he was aware that nurses might also have experienced the regime at Lennox Castle as oppressive. He didn?t want to excuse cruelty by nurses, but he did want to show that nurses also had a story to tell.
2. He says that he interviewed three groups of nurses: people he had worked with, who knew him and who were retired; people who had worked at Lennox Castle when he did, but who did not know him; and people who had retired before he worked there, and whom he did not know. He also interviewed people who had been residents at Lennox Castle and who were now living in the community, and people who were still living at Lennox Castle.
3. He describes the advantages of being an insider as:
   • his commitment to the hospital
   • his knowledge of learning disability and its history
   • his contacts with people who could tell him their stories
   • his local and hospital connections
   • professional trust
   • his ability to communicate with people with learning disabilities.
4. The disadvantages he identifies include:
   • Concern not to upset people who trusted him might have influenced how he asked his questions.
   • His choice of who to interview might have been affected by who he knew.
   • There were times when he didn?t ask enough questions because people assumed he already knew about such things as daily routines.
   • Residents may have deferred to him as someone representing the hospital authority.
5. He mentions several ethical issues:
   • not wanting to be seen as somehow defending the hospital?s regime of care and treatment
   • having access to documents, such as case notes, which referred to residents individually ? he decided not to read these
   • being aware that some of the residents were so used to deferring to people in authority that he wasn?t sure whether, had they not been, they might have refused to take part, and therefore whether they had really given informed consent
   • his concern that, as a researcher, he might be seen to be exploiting the residents, who weren?t all able to gain from their involvement in his research.

In relation to the last point, Mitchell went on to create an online archive of the history of the hospital, which was then developed as an online video (Mitchell, undated).

In this section you have been looking at the contribution that oral history can make to an understanding of the past. People like Margaret Scally and Jimmy Lappin, when asked to talk about their experience, provide accounts which demonstrate how their lives were affected and how they felt about the regime under which they lived. Colin Sproul, Allan Williamson and Howard Mitchell, all of whom worked at ‘The Castle?, describe working in a setting where they felt constrained, although they deal with their feelings about what they saw, heard and took part in, rather differently. If the only available evidence was from images and documents such as record books and other written sources, it might not be possible to understand what it is like to live and work in a total institution. But oral history opens up the possibility for other understandings, and a more complete record can thus emerge once those, particularly residents and patients, who were so often disregarded and marginalised are encouraged to remember and talk about their lives (Atkinson, 1997; Thompson, 2000; Perks and Thomson, 2006).

Oral history is valued for the way in which it helps to counter stereotypes and to change the status of people with learning disabilities, particularly those who spent much of their time living in large institutions. You probably noted how definite Margaret Scally was about her own experiences of Lennox Castle. As an interviewee recorded for the history of Meanwood Park Hospital in Leeds put it:

I?d just like people to know so they can realise what it was we?d had to go through! It?s not true what was written down! They did it just to keep us locked up, so that people would think we?re mental!

Key points

• Memories of the past help us to access accounts and experiences which don?t appear in formal records.
• Finding out about a particular aspect of the past means looking for as many different sources as possible, because none can present a whole picture and together they provide a more complete story.
• The way in which accounts are presented will depend on who tells the story and with what purpose.
• Being an insider researcher can bring advantages as well as disadvantages.
• It is important to consider any ethical issues that may arise from talking to people about their life experience.
• Providing opportunities for people with learning disabilities to talk about the past can help to challenge stereotypes and change attitudes.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence