“Foucault's first attempt at writing a history of the repressed and the forgotten. In this seminal work he chooses to relate the history of European madness and relates it to the great confinement within institutions of the Enlightenment. Before the advent of the institution, madness had been seen as another way of seeing reality and not merely the deviation from a norm. Indeed most societies tolerated their own mad people within the community and looked to them for an alternative viewpoint while looking after them. In Shakespeare we often get the idea of the mad person who seems more aware than the so called sane members of society. Foucault's real target here is the modern world and its unthinking acceptance of the Enlightenment's values.”
“this is yet another amazing analysis by foucault. it changed the way i think about academics, and this new perception helped me through grad school.”
