Tag: The Madhouse
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Longitudinal lunacy: Science and madness in the eighteenth century
Richard de Grijs Sydney, Australia Daniel Vuillermin Beijing, China Interior of Bethlem Royal Hospital, from A Rake’s Progress by William Hogarth. The poor soul in the background is trying to solve the longitude problem. “A couple of young Non conformist preachers from Worksop in the North of Derbyshire came thither to have my approbation…
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Mental health in Michel Foucault’s The Birth of the Clinic and the limits of medical positivism
Taylor Tso St. Louis, Missouri, United States The Madhouse (Casa de locos). Painting by Francisco de Goya. In The Birth of the Clinic, Michel Foucault traces the history of our present-day understanding of disease. One of the most significant and more recent problems this understanding had to confront was the pre-nineteenth century outlook that…
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Neurologica – Disorders of the dream world
Shameemah Abrahams Cape Town A portrait of the pioneering neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, who was well-known for characterizing multiple sclerosis and hysteria. The human mind, so capable of creating works of genius like the orchestral sounds of Beethoven’s symphonies, da Vinci’s enigmatic artwork, or the majestic pyramids of Giza, can easily lose itself and spiral…