When his book was first published in France in 1961, Madness and the Unreasonable: A History of Madness in the Classical Age, many had never heard of a thirty-four-year-old philosopher named Michel Foucault. By the time an abridged 1967 English edition entitled Madness and Civilization was published, Michel Foucault had revolutionized intellectual circles.
This translation is the only English version of the full French text, including all introductions and appendices.Foucault moves brilliantly from Descartes to the founding of the Paris General Hospital and the beginnings of psychiatry, exploring not only scientific and medical analyzes of madness, but also the philosophical and cultural values associated with the mad. He also urges us to recognize the creative and liberating forces that madness represents, drawing brilliantly on examples from Goya, Nietzsche, Van Gogh, and Artaud.
A History of Madness is an inspiring and classic work that challenges our understanding of madness, reason, power, and the forces that shape them.
