Dr. Avril Tynan
Keywords: Uprootedness; Medical humanities; Madness; Social belonging; Finnish literature
‘To be rooted’, wrote French philosopher Simone Weil in The Need for Roots, ‘is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul’ (2002, 40). These roots are to be found in the life of a community, and active participation in such a community – be it national, biological, or any other – ensures an individual’s continuity both with the past and the future (Weil 2002, 7). Writing at the height of the Second World War and shortly before her death, Weil recognized the