From around 1870, art and psychology entered into a close relationship. Collections of so-called "mad art" emerged across Europe, and psychiatric institutions became the focal point of societal and normative negotiations. Some psychiatrists saw parallels between the art of the avant-garde, the "primitives," and the works of their patients, while artists, in turn, recognized themselves in the image of the madman excluded by society. However, artistic patients were rarely granted authorship or a space for their voices. This study reconstructs the discourses in which their works were inscribed in Switzerland and how they, as authors, negotiate the place where their work was created on an aesthetic level. The historical perspective they provide from an unusual viewpoint is as valuable as it is rare.