History of Madness

Question 1

Pinel

Answer 1

• often seen as hero of health reform in France

- sure, he helped but maybe he just changed the system of control and dominance

Question 2

Foucault

Answer 2

-Foucault tries to look at madness with sense of history, trying to understand madness as indicators of what was reason and “correct” knowledge

Question 3

Medieval Times

Answer 3

Allegorical ship of fools
Christian scholastic philosophy
-tried to connect things to god
-madness is seen as an evil omen or being blessed
1480s: this reasoning undergoes a change
-the sun is at the centre of the universe
-Bosch “Extraction of the Stone of Madness” satirizes who is mad? the patient or the doctors?
-basic critique of authority
15th c: object of satire/comedy

Question 4

17th century and the great confinement

Answer 4

1648: christian sects settled their shit, the role of religion was diminished in everyday life
New and increased governmentality; government to manage and police population
Economic empire becomes really important
-strong/healthy population was important for work force which was important for economy
-rise in statistics
-biopolitics (fascination with controlling and regulating bodies)
-being sane/rational becomes equated with being productive/labourers says Foucault (mentally ill, vagabonds, sex workers, disabled, etc were groups as abnormal/ill)
-madness didn’t have form, thus didn’t have a cure
Lazar Houses & Exclusion of Lepers
-exile of Lepers to keep them away from the sin that caused it, also to keep healthy from being infected

Question 5

18th century and Pinel

Answer 5

Recognition that lumping criminal/sexual deviants/beggars/disabled/”mad” wasn’t effective, thus specific hospitals for the insane were created. Pinel thought that once madness was segregated, it could be properly studied (close but not quite scientific psychiatry).

Madness was believed to have a cause.

• Samuel Tuke’s “Moral Retreat” was predicated on the idea that madness in relationship with nature was the result of civilization and the alienation of self from nature.
• hustle and bustle of society triggers insanity
• retreat would restore their sanity
• also liked idea of mandatory labour

Mental illness judged on relative scale
-to escape madness, they must be confined but if they are cured, the would go back to society and then be judge insane again

Question 6

later in 19th century

Answer 6

mental illness is an actual illness
Jean-Martin Charcot and his student Frued introduce idea of curing mental illness. Sees MI as biological – pressure in nasal canal puts pressure on brain. They worked together for a while until they got mad at each other and Freud turned to psychoanalysis.
Development of the doctor-patient relationship

Question 7

20th century

Answer 7

1960/70s: widespread critique of asylum system => community based approach. we don’t have to remove people from their community.