Toward an Understanding of Madness

The term “madness” straddles several levels of meaning ranging from the strictly psychiatric to the outrageous. As with any metaphor, this can be a broadening of understanding or a source of confusion. Throughout history humans have sought to understand and deal with wrong thinking and deviant behavior. Foucault is particularly helpful in understanding how the modern era has scientifically and metaphorically narrowed the understanding of madness in a more humane and therapeutic understanding, which does not quite get beyond social stigmatization and disapproval. But anti-psychiatrists like R.D. Laing and Thomas Szasz have suggested that psychiatry is not an appropriate arbiter of madness and sanity, which Franz Fanon suggests may be a form of “psychiatricide.” Nima Bassari notes that since the 19th century, psychiatrists have increasingly looked at mental disorder through an economic lens. Interlude: The Emperor&s;s New Clothes Interlude: Cheshire Cat Logic