ABSTRACT
The archaeological approach to madness traces madness across three ages of European history focusing on the hidden structures which construct madness. After introducing human restlessness according to Augustine, I turn to the dark irrational or unreason (déraison) of Foucault’s History of Madness and uncover the continued obsession to define madness in conformity with the cultural definition of the irrational. The cultural view of the irrational is displayed in key events of each age, like the great confinement of the classical age which sought to hide any signs of the irrational by placing the mad in jails across Europe. Despite these fluctuations in the perceptions of the irrational, I argue that there remains an underlying tragic element, which I call the “overarching nonrational,” that plagues each age.
