History of the madness at the traditional age

Thesis of doctorate and first important work of Michel Foucault, History of the madness at the traditional age (original title: Madness and insanity. History of the madness at the traditional age ), written in Sweden, is published in 1961. Foucault studies there the developments of the idea of Folie through the History.

Principal ideas

An exclusion replaces another of them

Foucault starts with an analysis with the Moyen-âge, noting in particular how the leprous were parked out of the company of the alive ones. There be, perhaps up to 19000 leper-houses, this precision basing itself on Matthieu Paris, at least 2000 about 1266. This question indeed brings to once wonder that will become the leper-houses, disappeared leprosy: “(...) these structures will remain. In the same places often the plays of exclusion will be found, curiously similar two or three centuries later ”.

From there it traces a history of the idea of mental disease at the 15th century, and interest increased for the imprisonment at the 17th century in France. A reference mark is given: it is the foundation by a decree, in 1656, of a general hospital , which will be used as place of internment for the insane ones, but also of the poor, criminals. The place will be at the same time vector of repression and charity. All these " confusions" thus put question.

The internment of insane, heretics, criminals and libertines

Soon however (First part, chapter III) of the precise details are given. There was many places reserved for only insane: the Hôtel-Dieu will accommodate only alienated , Bétlhéem with London will accommodate only whimsical , although in addition the " fous" , the furious are mixed, confused with other internees, until in prison.

It is then a question of questioning the difference between these two places. When, only of insane are interned, it acts well of a medical will, which is not the case elsewhere. Moreover, Foucault suggests that confusion that we perceive in the internment is a vision which is not " juste" , since it carries on the traditional age a current glance, and that it is thus a question much more of including/understanding, not an error of the traditional age, but well a homogeneous experiment of exclusion, positive signs , a positive conscience .

Going further, Foucault notices that the asylums reserved for insane are not new at the traditional age. The innovation which brings this period, in fact well the places mix insane and different, charity and repression. Indeed, Foucault specifies the existence of hospitals reserved for the insane ones: with Fez at the 7th century, with Baghdad at the 12th century, then with the Cairo at the next century.

Disease of the heart

Lastly, the madness would have been recognized like a disease of the heart even, then with Freud, like a mental disease.

Foucault gives an great attention to the way in which the statute of insane passed from that of a being occupying a place accepted, if not recognized, in the social order, with that of one excluded, locked up and confined between four walls.

Foucault studies the various manners and attempts at treatment of insane, and more particularly work of Philippe Pinel and Samuel Tuke. Foucault clearly presents the treatments applied by these two men like not less authoritative than those their predecessors. Thus the asylum and the methods of Tuke would have mainly consisted only of the punishment of the individuals recognized as insane until they learn how to act normally, forcing them indeed to behave with the manner of beings perfectly been subject and in conformity to the allowed rules. In a similar way, the treatment of insane by Pinel seems to have been only one wide version of the Thérapie by the aversion, including there treatments such as the frozen shower and the use of the strait jackets. For Foucault, this type of treatments only amounts maltreating the patient with repetition until this one integrates the structure of the judgment and the punishment.

Plan

First part

Chapitre I - Stultiferas navis
Chapter II - Large renfermement the
Chapter III - The world correctionnaire
Chapter IV - Experiments of the madness
Chapter V - Foolish the

Second part

Introduction
Chapter I - The insane one with the garden of the species
Chapter II - The transcendence of is delirious
Chapter III - Figures of the madness
Chapter IV - Doctors and sick

Third part

Introduction
Chapter I - Great fear
Chapter II - The new division
Chapter III - Good use of freedom
Chapter IV - Birth of asylum
Chapter V - The anthropological circle

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