Palimpsestic Theology: A Methodology for Engaging Psychiatric Archives in Practical Theology

This paper develops palimpsestic theology as a practical theological methodology for engaging with psychiatric archives. Drawing from Mad Studies, liberation theology, critical disability studies, and contemplative traditions, it resists extractive approaches to knowledge production and instead attends to fragments, silences, and erased spiritual expressions. Through four methodological movements – Invoke, Commune, Conspire, and Unsettle – palimpsestic theology outlines a framework of presence, reciprocity, and spiritual accompaniment. Grounded in patient writings from The Opal and personal belongings from the Willard Asylum suitcases, this paper shows how theological meaning persists through institutional erasure and expands who carries theological knowledge.