The Straitjacket Turned down: A Study of Defiance and Agency in Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of English, Ab.C., Islamic Azad University, Abhar, Zanjan, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran.

10.22091/slic.2026.14270.1011

Abstract

This article explores Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis as a representation of madness and how it is internalized and confronted, employing Michel Foucault’s ideas to examine various forms of the Voice’s, the main character of the play, resistance against the power exercised by the medical discourse. This analysis of 4.48 Psychosis, putting the patient’s madness in the second place of importance, focuses on the power relationship between medical discourse and the insane, or that between the psychiatrist/physician and the patient. The play begins with a psychotic’s struggle to preserve his/her integrity and sovereignty in the treatment s/he is through. Yet, despite different forms of resistance s/he exercises, s/he emerges as giving up this resistance. As a result, the treatment of his/her madness does not seem successful, and what finally remains is the domineering power of the psychiatrist/physician over the patient, inserted through medical discourse. This investigation addresses the mechanism of this power play.

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Main Subjects

Studies in literature and Culture: from Theory to Practice

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 25 February 2026

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