Thinking with Bevereley Skeggs - Stockholms universitet

her abilities’. Her doctors had hoped to change her behaviourby way of castration, but the operation did not have the desiredeffect. According to my interpretation, Anna was understood asa woman who did not understand her proper place, and who wasengaged in various forms of improper and undesirable behaviour.In short, she overstepped the mark and did not demonstratethe proper kind of femininity for a woman in her position, i.e.unmarried, crippled, and poor.Awaiting another trial discharge in 1941, Anna was declaredlegally incompetent. In 1942, she was readmitted to Beckombergaat her own request, as she, according to the record, ‘can’t stand itwithout help anymore’. That which she could not stand was ‘thesexual’. Anna fancied and fantasized about women, while shealso suffered severely from harbouring such unnatural feelings.Because it was as such that she and the major part of medicine andsociety understood same sex sexual desire and homosexuality.This was also in line with the Swedish legislation of the time.In the record Anna was quoted as feeling that she had nothingto live for since she ‘neither could work, nor love’. Her constantcrying and despair caused a disturbance on the ward, and she wastreated with higher and higher dosages of insulin. Despite theinsulin therapy, Anna’s putative homosexual ‘trouble’ persisted.In 1944, she fell in love with a ward sister. In the autumn, at theage of 33, Anna had a lobotomy.IVPsychogenic factorsMilitary serviceFinancial troublesStress at workMarital conflictsInheritance disputeWar-related psychosis andneurosisUnemploymentUnhappy loveUnwanted pregnancyReligious contemplationEscape from occupied nationMisfitFear55