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

Foucault lays out his intent to write a history of “madness” and the methodological difficulties inherent to that task. Because “madmen” have not written their own history, it is impossible to write a true history of “madness;” instead, he will trace the ways in which “madness” has been constructed and conceived of by the non-“mad.” Madness and Civilization will therefore serve as an account of this monologue, or one-sided discourse, on the condition, covering the period between the Late Middle Ages and the mid-19th century, with special emphasis on the Enlightenment. The two key dates to keep track of are the opening of l’Hôpital Général in 1657 and the liberation of prisoners from Bicêtre Hospital in 1794. In the intervening period, “madness” was transformed from a type of social delinquency into a distinct medical condition.

Foucault begins by asserting that leprosy vanished from Western Europe at the end of the Middle Ages. Because the disease had been so prevalent for centuries, an entire social infrastructure had been developed to manage it. Most notably, “lazar houses” were spaces of confinement where a given city would send their infected for the purpose of quarantine.