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Title: Madness and Civilization : A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason by Michel Foucault ISBN: 0-679-72110-X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 28 November, 1988 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.67 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Commentary on the previous reviews
Comment: (1) "If you are not philosophical, DO NOT READ..." It's true that it's a difficult work, and futhermore, the English translation published by Vintage Books is only excerpts - a condensation of the original work which was about 900 pages in French. Not a light read.
(2) "To write the "History of Madness" is to be mad itself"
This reviewer's comments are inaccurate in that Foucault himself stated that the work was not "anti-psychiatric" in the sense that he wished to deny the validity of psychiatric medicine. The book was one of two theses that Foucault had to defend at the College de France. At the time (circa 1959) Foucault was almost completely unknown among the general public. It is true that in the late 1960's, after Foucault had become famous, some people tried to use this work for left-wing political ends, and it is true that "The psychiatric establishment of the time attacked Foucault with most harsh diatribe". Regarding the title of this reviewer's blurb, Foucault said that writing the history of madness was his method to AVOID going mad himself. In Foucault's personality there was something bordering on madness and he was specifically interested in normative standards of behavior, their definitions, and the transgression thereof.
(3) "A poetic historical tour de force redefining reason."
This review was a very good summary of what the book is actually about. It's obvious that this reviewer is the only one of the three below who has actually read the book.
Rating: 4
Summary: A SANE VIEW OF INSANITY
Comment: I read this book for a graduate class in psychotherapy. Given the choice of Foucault's history versus books on various theoretical perspectives on psychology and psychiatry, chosing this book was a no-brainer. Reading it, however, did take some brains, but it was worth the effort.
The first chapter is especially delightful. Its focuses on the time period from the end of the Middle Ages and into the Rennaisannce. Foucault gives many specific and poignant examples of how the changing view of insanity was intertwined with the changing concepts of God and humanity. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the "Ship of Fools" and the extensive and elevative literary treatment of Folly during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
I would recommend this book to anyone in the mental health professions or to people of reason everywhere.
Rating: 2
Summary: Revising Foucaultian Revisionism
Comment: Immensely popular and influential among left-wing American cultural critics, this book has been critiqued ravishly by French psychologists. The gist of their critique is that the book represents more of the values and concerns of Foucault rather than an accurate and responsible history of mental illness. Foucault's central argument that society defines sane and insane behavior is an old cliche in cultural anthropology. Furthermore, recent advances in cognitive science and psychiatry challenge Foucault's position by affirming that mental illness is exactly that, namely, "an illness." Simply stated, there is so much cross-cultural evidence that certain psychiatric disorders are univeral and not, therefore, specific to cultures but biologically grounded. Various mental illnesses have been verified biologically as illnesses in the same way that biologically illnesses are also recognizable as physical illnesses. Foucault is sometimes touted as a "cutting-edge" thinker, but his ideas were dated before he wrote them down. Erving Goffman's book "Asylums" is an earlier and far better treatment of the cultural dynamics of mental institutions, and Ruth Benedict argued (in 1930) that insanity is often a cultural construct rather than a physical malady. The basics of Foucault's ideas can also be seen in the writing of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Montaigne, and other Renaissance writers--about 400 years ago. The moral dimensions of Foucault's fraud are only now being explored, and this writer's currently trendy reputation is not likely to stand the test of time. This book is a good example of ways in which trendy writing and intellectual fads can quickly be discovered to be mere cliches. Intellectual dubiousness aside, the major problems with this tome deal with Foucault's romanticization of mental illness. In placing "insanity" in quotes, Foucault is arguing that it is one more mental condition -- no better nor worse than sanity. This view is intellectually suspect, at best, and downright dangerous at worst. It seems that Foucault is writing to shock and self-aggrandize his own self. This shouldn't be surprising when even a cursory read of his biography reveals that Foucault had all sorts of loathsome predilections, including praise for Mao, Stalin, and Khomeni as well as stated opposition to age of consent laws and support for eugenics, not to mention his passionate involvement in S&M and LSD trips.
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Title: Discipline & Punish : The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault ISBN: 0679752552 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 25 April, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The History of Sexuality : An Introduction by Michel Foucault ISBN: 0679724699 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 April, 1990 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Birth of the Clinic, The : An Archaeology of Medical Perception by Michel Foucault ISBN: 0679753346 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 29 March, 1994 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Order of Things : An Archaeology of Human Sciences by Michel Foucault ISBN: 0679753354 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 29 March, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Power/Knowledge : Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977 by Michel Foucault ISBN: 039473954X Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 12 November, 1980 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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