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Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
by Michel Foucault

Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason Cover

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Powells.com Staff Pick

When I was immersed in a sea of literary criticism a few years ago, Foucault, more than anyone else, caught my attention. Looking deeply at the roots of our behavior and our cultural attitudes, his examination of different kinds of power and control is more than just fascinating — it's extremely important in understanding how we might move our society forward. Madness and Civilization focuses, as the title implies, on the ways that insanity is constructed by culture, but it might not be what you'd expect. It is primarily a history and an exploration, rich in imagery and metaphor, and as such, it is intense, beautiful, and engaging. (I lent this book to a friend of mine, a medical student who reads very little nonfiction outside of class. He couldn't put it down.) From the original connection of madness to divinity, through the centuries of tighter and tighter control of the poor and eccentric as well as the catatonic, Foucault traces our reactions to madness and the impulses that guide them up until very recent times. Madness and Civilization provides an invaluable examination of our reactions to abnormality.
Recommended by Jill, Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

What does it mean to be mad? In Madness and Civilization, perhaps his masterpiece, Michel Foucault examines the archaeology of madness in the West from 1500 to 1800 — from the Middle Ages, when insanity was considered part of everyday life and fools and crazies walked the streets freely, to the time when such people began to be considered a threat, asylums were first built, and a wall was erected between the "insane" and the rest of humanity.

Review:

"Foucault's book belongs, both by reason of its content and its profundity, in the class of such treatises — at once historical, scientific, and ethical — as Norman O. Brown's Life Against Death."
-- The New York Times Book Review

Review:

"Superb scholarship rendered with artistry."
-- The Nation

Synopsis:

Perhaps the French philosopher's masterpiece, which is concerned with an extraordinary question: What does it mean to be mad?
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A.K. Strong, May 30, 2007 (view all comments by A.K. Strong)
Truly a work of art in itself, Foucualt's work is a gripping tale of the progress of societal impressions on the insane over time, and how madness has evolved from being a "mark from God" of the ancient times, to "something that needs to be cured" of modern science and medicine, and the effects it has thus on the diagnosed. Foucault's student, Jacques Derrida's biting critique of this work is surely a good pair for anyone interested in a good debate.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780679721109
Subtitle:
A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
Author:
Foucault, Michel
Publisher:
Vintage Books USA
Location:
New York :
Subject:
Modern
Subject:
Psychiatry
Subject:
Europe - General
Subject:
Mental Illness
Subject:
Insanity
Subject:
History & Surveys - Modern
Copyright:
c196
Edition Number:
Vintage Books ed.
Edition Description:
Includes bibliographical references.
Series Volume:
no. 28
Publication Date:
November 1988
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
320
Dimensions:
8.06x5.24x.61 in. .58 lbs.
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