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The Classical Period

The period from 1660 to the end of the 19th century. Madness and Civilization, like most of Foucault's works, refers mainly to this period. For Foucault, the classical period sees as the birth of many of the characteristic institutions and structures of the modern world. Madness in the classical period was confined and silenced, along with other forms of nonconformity.

Cogito

The argument “cogito ergo sum” (“I think, therefore I am”) comes from René Descartes’s Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. For Foucault, it represents a key shift in the conception of madness. The cogito argument begins in doubt. Descartes attempts to counter the position of extreme skepticism about the world and his own existence. He asks, “How do I know that I exist?” and wonders if he is not mad or being deceived about his own existence. The answer is essentially that, even if all other evidence is discounted, Descartes knows that he doubts his existence; and because he doubts, he must be thinking. If he is thinking, he must exist and cannot be deceiving himself.

There are various problems of interpretation that affect this argument, but Foucault ignores them. What interests him is the way that Descartes reveals the self-confidence of reason in the classical period. Descartes believes he cannot be mad because he reasons; reason opposes itself absolutely to madness. Foucault's interpretation of Descartes was heavily criticized by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his work Cogito et Histoire de la folie (Cogito and the history of madness).

Confinement

Confinement is a phenomenon specific to the 18th century, by which society creates a space in which certain social deviants, including criminals, the idle poor and the mad are locked up and excluded. Confinement began, Foucault argues, with the building of the Hôpital général in 1656, and ended during the French Revolution when attitudes to madness changed. Confinement was possible because of a combination of economic and social factors; it represented far more than the construction of buildings to house lunatics.

Delirium

Delirium comes from the Latin word deliro, meaning to move out of the proper path. In this context it essentially means to move away from the path of reason. Foucault argues that there were two forms of delirium in the classical period. The first was a general symptom of various forms of madness; the second was a particular discourse that distorted the madman's relationship to the truth. Classical delirium is a phenomenon of language; madness becomes a sustained, untrue belief. The various “cures” developed in asylums were designed to alter delirious belief and restore sanity. See also Discourse.

Discourse

Discourse is a central concept for Foucault, which is first introduced in Madness and Civilization but developed in his later work. A discourse is essentially a total system of knowledge that makes true or false statements possible. Certain statements become possible within certain discourses. The discourse of madness is particularly powerful. The madman believes unreal things to be true because the delirious discourse that structures his belief dictates it. See also Delirium.

Madness

For Foucault, madness is a term with many meanings. It has a complex relationship to unreason; it is both part of unreason and separate from it. It is essentially constructed and controlled by the intellectual and cultural forces that operate within society. The treatment of the mad depends fundamentally on how they are perceived. Madness in the Middle Ages was associated with dark secrets and visions of the end of the world. In the classical period, however, it was confined along with other forms of social deviance and lost its exclusive status. The modern idea of madness as a treatable mental disease developed from 19th century ideas of madness as a kind of moral evil.

The Police

Foucault defines the police as a set of rules and tactics that make work possible and necessary for those who cannot do without it. It becomes important in Foucault’s discussion of the relationship between madness and labor. The “police” in French thought had always referred, not to the idea of a modern police force, but to a set of laws and customs that regulated behavior.

Ship of Fools

Plato’s allegory from The Republic is evoked by Foucault in the first chapter of Madness and Civilization. The Ship of Fools, or Narrenschiff, appeared as leprosy vanished. It was a literary device that had a real existence. (Despite Foucault’s claim, academics have found little evidence for it) As Foucault tells it, towns dealt with madmen by expelling them. Places to care for the insane did exist in towns, but they often only attracted the mad. The expulsion of madmen was only one of many ritual exiles. Complex symbolism was involved in the expulsion. The madman had to be both excluded and enclosed. Foucault asks why, if this theme is so deeply embedded in European culture, the Ship of Fools suddenly appeared. He says that it appeared because of a great uneasiness that began at the end of the Middle Ages. Madmen became dangerous and ambiguous figures.

Unreason

Like madness, unreason is a term that shifts in meaning. Essentially, it refers to those people, literary works and experiences that are beyond reason. Foucault thinks that classical unreason is reason “dazzled,” blinded by the light of experience. In the classical period, reason sought to confine unreason in the shape of social deviance. At this point unreason included the mad, the bad, and the lazy. Madness and unreason have a complex and changing relationship —sometimes madness forms part of unreason, but sometimes they are clearly separated.

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