Foucault on Madness

Three major narratives intertwine within Foucault’s text, Madness and Civilisation. ¹ They concern the political economy of madness, ² the representation of madness in art and literature, and the relation between madness and science. As we will see in the course of the following expositions, questions can be raised regarding the accuracy of the historical research that lies behind them, and concerning the cogency of both the lines of argumentation and the schemas of interpretation. The important point to grasp, however, is that while specific criticisms may be sustained with respect to some of Foucault’s particular statements, what cannot be disputed is the force of his demonstration that the contemporary understanding of mental illness has been shaped by a complex cultural, political, economic and epistemological history. It is a demonstration that completely transcends the geographical restrictions of the research, limited as it is almost entirely to the history of France. As even his fiercest critics will admit, Foucault’s book on madness has provided one of the main inspirations for the rethinking, over the last three decades or so, of the nature of insanity.