瑪麗．艾倫．瑪克(Mary Ellen Mark, 1940- )在1976年出版了《81號病房》(Ward 81)，報導奧瑞岡州立精神病院的女性瘋癲病患。《81號病房》雖然在1977年被《時代生活年鑑》選為年度最佳攝影集，截至目前為止卻沒有任何重要的研究發表。這篇論文將從視覺分析出發，佐以瑪克言論等直接文獻，希望能奠基於社會學、文學理論、科學史、藝術史、與性別研究對瘋癲的豐碩論述，展開對《81號病房》中女性瘋癲影像的歷史、藝術與理論的考察。尤其，筆者將嘗試把《81號病房》置入精神病學攝影的歷史當中比較，藉由突顯其與男性主持的精神病學攝影檔案的差異，來分析《81號病房》游移在窺視、魅惑與對抗之間的照片，展現了女性攝影家對女性瘋癲病患的獨特觀照。論文的主要觀點為：《81號病房》中的女性瘋癲影像，與十九世紀中期以來的精神醫學攝影截然不同，不再將攝影視為醫療機制中監控瘋癲女性的工具。而是在「反精神醫學運動」的抗議潮流之下，試圖以攝影揭發醫療機制對女性瘋癲病患的種種不人道待遇，並且以一些反客為主的女性瘋癲影像，顛覆父權社會對女性瘋癲的理性化監管。論文最後則處理女性主義理論探討女性瘋癲是否為顛覆父權秩序的有力隱喻的爭議，藉以檢驗《81號病房》的女性瘋癲身體影像，在性別政治上的貢獻與限制。

Mary Ellen Mark (1940- ) is one of the most influential, contemporary photojournalists in the United States. In 1979, she published Ward 81, a study of severely ill women at Oregon State Mental Hospital. This article, based on visual analyses as well as some crucial literature, compares Mark's works with related works in the tradition of maledominated psychiatric photography. In so doing, I decode how Mark negotiates her female gaze on women's madness. I also elucidate Mark's works through contemporary cultural discourses in sociology, literary theory, the history of science, the history of art, and gender studies to interpret the historical, aesthetic, cultural, social, and political meanings of Ward 81. My main innovative perspective is: Mark's imagery of women's madness differs from that in the tradition of psychiatric photography since the mid-nineteenth century. She no longer takes her lens as a tool to surveil women's madness in medical institutions. Rather, her photographs, influenced by the anti-psychiatry movement, reveal and protest against the anti-humanistic treatment of the female insane in Ward 81. Also, her provocative photographs of madwomen gazing back metaphorically establish their subversive agency and subjectivity against the rational surveillance of women's madness under patriarchy. In the conclusion, I examine the contribution and limitation of Ward 81 in the realm of gender politics and discuss whether women's madness is a powerful and subversive metaphor against the patriarchal order within feminist theory.