Madness in (not and!) Civilization
June 5, 2015 12:37 PM   Subscribe

Hallucination, or Divine Revelation? Emma Green of The Atlantic speaks to Andrew Scull, author of the recently-published Madness in Civilization. Scull on "Madness and Meaning" in the Paris Review.

(Scull caused a bit of controversy for his (unfortunately paywalled) TLS review of Foucault's History of Madness, reacted to on the Foucault Blog as well as a reprinted piece at The Valve.)
posted by mittens (2 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
I am currently grappling with issues of an old and dear friend who has become sadly deaf to suggestions that divinity is not the sole explanation for things, so this post is extremely relevant to my interests and I thank you. Most provocative, and frankly supportive of many of my own concerns regarding "visitations" and the economic expoitation such claims inevitably enable.
posted by kinnakeet at 6:41 PM on June 5, 2015 [1 favorite]


Looks like it was our very own Frowner who made an interesting comment in the Valve piece more than eight years ago.

I could use her help in understanding what Scull is trying to say beyond observing that every society has had mad people, that the mad have always been abused and horrifically mistreated in ways that enforce ruling narratives, and that our society is carrying on this long and dishonorable tradition.
posted by jamjam at 1:00 AM on June 6, 2015


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