History of Madness

1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-39783-0
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 768 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Routledge Classics

When it was first published in France in 1961 as Folie et Déraison: Histoire de la Folie à l'âge Classique, few had heard of a thirty-four year old philosopher by the name of Michel Foucault. By the time an abridged English edition was published in 1967 as Madness and Civilization, Michel Foucault had shaken the intellectual world.

This translation is the only English edition of the complete French texts of the first and second edition, including all prefaces and appendices.

Shifting deftly from Descartes to the founding of the Hôpital Général in Paris and early psychiatry, Foucault explores not only on scientific and medical analyses of madness, but also the philosophical and cultural values attached to the mad. He also urges us to recognize the creative and liberating forces that madness represents, brilliantly drawing on examples from Goya, Nietzsche, Van Gogh and Artaud.

The History of Madness is an inspiring and classic work that challenges us to understand madness, reason and power and the forces that shape them.

This Routledge Classics edition includes a new introductory Post scriptum by Jean Khalfa and, published here for the first time in English, a lecture Foucault delivered in 1970 at the University of Tokyo, where he summarizes some of the principal themes in this book. It is translated by Jean Khalfa and Joshua Heath.

Zielgruppe

Academic, General, Postgraduate, Undergraduate Advanced, and Undergraduate Core

Autoren/Hrsg.

Foucault, Michel

Khalfa, Jean

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword: History and Significance of Foucault’s History of Madness by Ian Hacking Introduction by Jean Khalfa  Post scriptum to the Introduction to the Routledge Classics Edition by Jean Khalfa Preface to the 1961 Edition Preface to the 1972 Edition  Part 1  I. Stultifera Navis II. The Great Confinement III. The Correctional World IV. Experiences of Madness V. The Insane  Part 2  Introduction I. The Madman in the Garden of Species II. The Transcendence of Delirium III. Figures of Madness IV. Doctors and Patients  Part 3  Introduction I. The Great Fear II. The New Division III. The Proper Use of Liberty IV. Birth of the Asylum V. The Anthropological Circle  Appendices  I. Madness, the absence of an oeuvre. Appendix I of 1972 edition II. My body, this paper, this fire. Appendix II of 1972 Edition III. Reply to Derrida (‘Michel Foucault Derrida e no kaino’. Paideia (Tokyo) February 1972 IV. Madness and Society (‘La Folie et la société’, presented at a Conference at the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Tokyo University, October 1970, a summary of which was published in Todai Kyoyogakubu-ho, 20 Novembre 1970) Endnotes  Annexes  I. Documents II. Foucault’s original bibliography III. Bibliography of English works quoted in this translation IV. Critical Bibliography on Foucault’s History of Madness.  Index

Über Autor(innen)

Michel Foucault is one of the most influential, and controversial, thinkers of the twentieth century. His engagement with topics such as truth, power and language continues to exert significant influence on a huge range of disciplines, from philosophy, sociology and anthropology to history, politics, law, literature, religion and many others.

Born in Poitiers, France in October 1926, Foucault studied philosophy at the prestigious École Normale Supérieure in Paris, securing degrees in both philosophy and psychology. He lectured there in philosophy and worked as a psychologist at the Höpital Sainte-Anne in the early 1950s. His thesis, Folie et Deraison: Histoire de la folie à l'âge Classique was published in 1961 and subsequently published in English as History of Madness by Routledge. It was hailed as ‘magnificent’ by the renowned historian Fernand Braudel and announced the arrival of a major new voice in philosophy. Several other now famous works followed, including The Birth of the Clinic, The Order of Things and The Archaeology of Knowledge (all published by Routledge).

Foucault was also a renowned activist, campaigning tirelessly on behalf of homosexuals and for prison reform. He travelled to North America in the 1970s and 1980s to live what he termed ‘limit experiences’ and write the three volumes of his History of Sexuality. Fatally ill with AIDS, Foucault died in Paris on 25 June 1984, at the age of fifty-seven.