Madness and Civilization
Encyclopedia
Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (1964) by Michel Foucault
, is the English edition of Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique, a 1964 abridged edition of the 1961 Folie et déraison: Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique. An English translation of the complete 1961 edition, entitled History of Madness, was published in June 2006. Foucault's first major book, written while he was the director of the Maison de France in Sweden, it is an examination of the cultural, legal, political philosophical and, finally, medical construction of madness in Europe, from the Middle Ages to the end of the eighteenth century, and a critique of the idea of history and historical method. It marks a turning in Foucault's philosophical thought from phenomenology toward structuralism
. Though he uses the language of phenomenology to describe an evolving experience of the other as mad, he attributes the change in this experience over time to specific powerful social structures.
In the mid-seventeenth century, in the midst of the age of reason
, madness began to be conceived of as unreason and the mad, previously consigned to society's margins, were now separated from society and confined, along with prostitutes, vagrants, blasphemers, orphans and the like, in newly created institutions all over Europe. Their condition was seen as one of moral error, they were viewed as having freely chosen the path of unreason, and the institutional regimes were meticulous programs of punishment and reward aimed at causing them to reverse that choice. The social forces Foucault sees as driving this confinement include the need for an extrajudicial mechanism for getting rid of undesirables, and the regulation of unemployment and wages (the cheap labour of the workhouses applied downward pressure on the wages of free labour). Foucault argues that this confinement made the mad conveniently available to medical doctors who then began to view madness as a natural object
, worthy of inquiry; and that the conceptual distinction between the mad and the reasonable was in a sense a product of this physical separation into confinement.
The modern experience began at the end of the eighteenth century with the creation of places devoted solely to the care of the mad under the supervision of medical doctors; born out of a blending of two motives: the new goal of curing the mad away from the family who could not afford the necessary care at home, and the old purpose of confining undesirables for the protection of society. These distinct purposes were soon lost sight of and the institution came to be seen as the only place where therapeutic treatment can be administered. Foucault sees the nominally more enlightened treatment in these new institutions as just as cruel and controlling as that of their rational predecessors.
, and often quoted in the anti-psychiatric movement
, Foucault himself criticized, especially in retrospect, the "Romanticism of Madness", which tended to see madness as a form of genius
which modern medicine represses. He did not contest the reality of psychiatric disorders, as some of his readers have concluded. Rather, he explored how "madness" could be constituted as an object of knowledge on the one hand, and, on the other hand, as the target of intervention for a specific type of power: the disciplinary institution
of the asylum.
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
, is the English edition of Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique, a 1964 abridged edition of the 1961 Folie et déraison: Histoire de la folie à l'âge classique. An English translation of the complete 1961 edition, entitled History of Madness, was published in June 2006. Foucault's first major book, written while he was the director of the Maison de France in Sweden, it is an examination of the cultural, legal, political philosophical and, finally, medical construction of madness in Europe, from the Middle Ages to the end of the eighteenth century, and a critique of the idea of history and historical method. It marks a turning in Foucault's philosophical thought from phenomenology toward structuralism
Structuralism
Structuralism originated in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague and Moscow schools of linguistics. Just as structural linguistics was facing serious challenges from the likes of Noam Chomsky and thus fading in importance in linguistics, structuralism...
. Though he uses the language of phenomenology to describe an evolving experience of the other as mad, he attributes the change in this experience over time to specific powerful social structures.
On madness
Foucault traces the evolution of the concept of madness through three phases: the Renaissance, the "Classical Age" (the later seventeenth and most of the eighteenth centuries) and the modern experience. He argues that in the Renaissance the mad were portrayed in art as possessing a kind of wisdom, a knowledge of the limits of our world, and portrayed in literature as revealing the distinction between what men are and what they pretend to be. Renaissance art and literature depicted the mad as engaged with the reasonable, but it marked the beginning of an objective description of madness and reason, as though seen from above, compared with the more intimate medieval descriptions from within society.In the mid-seventeenth century, in the midst of the age of reason
Age of reason
Age of reason may refer to:* 17th-century philosophy, as a successor of the Renaissance and a predecessor to the Age of Enlightenment* Age of Enlightenment in its long form of 1600-1800* The Age of Reason, a book by Thomas Paine...
, madness began to be conceived of as unreason and the mad, previously consigned to society's margins, were now separated from society and confined, along with prostitutes, vagrants, blasphemers, orphans and the like, in newly created institutions all over Europe. Their condition was seen as one of moral error, they were viewed as having freely chosen the path of unreason, and the institutional regimes were meticulous programs of punishment and reward aimed at causing them to reverse that choice. The social forces Foucault sees as driving this confinement include the need for an extrajudicial mechanism for getting rid of undesirables, and the regulation of unemployment and wages (the cheap labour of the workhouses applied downward pressure on the wages of free labour). Foucault argues that this confinement made the mad conveniently available to medical doctors who then began to view madness as a natural object
Natural kind
In philosophy, a natural kind is a "natural" grouping, not an artificial one. Or, it is something that a set of things has in common which distinguishes it from other things as a real set rather than as a group of things arbitrarily lumped together by a person or group of people.If any natural...
, worthy of inquiry; and that the conceptual distinction between the mad and the reasonable was in a sense a product of this physical separation into confinement.
The modern experience began at the end of the eighteenth century with the creation of places devoted solely to the care of the mad under the supervision of medical doctors; born out of a blending of two motives: the new goal of curing the mad away from the family who could not afford the necessary care at home, and the old purpose of confining undesirables for the protection of society. These distinct purposes were soon lost sight of and the institution came to be seen as the only place where therapeutic treatment can be administered. Foucault sees the nominally more enlightened treatment in these new institutions as just as cruel and controlling as that of their rational predecessors.
...modern man no longer communicates with the madman [...] There is no common language: or rather, it no longer exists; the constitution of madness as mental illness, at the end of the eighteenth century, bears witness to a rupture in a dialogue, gives the separation as already enacted, and expels from the memory all those imperfect words, of no fixed syntax, spoken falteringly, in which the exchange between madness and reason was carried out. The language of psychiatry, which is a monologue by reason about madness, could only have come into existence in such a silence.Foucault, Preface to the 1961 edition.
Impact
Although Madness and Civilization has widely been read as a criticism of psychiatryPsychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
, and often quoted in the anti-psychiatric movement
Anti-psychiatry
Anti-psychiatry is a configuration of groups and theoretical constructs that emerged in the 1960s, and questioned the fundamental assumptions and practices of psychiatry, such as its claim that it achieves universal, scientific objectivity. Its igniting influences were Michel Foucault, R.D. Laing,...
, Foucault himself criticized, especially in retrospect, the "Romanticism of Madness", which tended to see madness as a form of genius
Genius
Genius is something or someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight....
which modern medicine represses. He did not contest the reality of psychiatric disorders, as some of his readers have concluded. Rather, he explored how "madness" could be constituted as an object of knowledge on the one hand, and, on the other hand, as the target of intervention for a specific type of power: the disciplinary institution
Disciplinary institutions
Disciplinary institutions is a concept proposed by Michel Foucault in Discipline and Punish . School, prison, barracks or the hospital are examples of historical disciplinary institutions, all created in their modern form in the 19th century with the Industrial Revolution...
of the asylum.