History of Madness

Michel Foucault (1926-84). Celebrated French thinker and activist who challenged people's assumptions about care of the mentally ill, gay rights, prisons, the police and welfare.Jean Khalfa is a lecturer in French at Cambridge University, UK.Jonathan Murphy is an experienced translator, editor and lecturer.

• Foreword: History and Significance of Foucault’s History of Madness Prefaces 1. 1961 Edition 2. 1972 Edition Part 1 1. Stultifera Navis 2. The Great Confinement 3. The Correctional World 4. Experiences of Madness 5. The Insane Part 2 1. The Madman in the Garden of Species 2. The Transcendence of Delirium 3. Figures of Madness 4. Doctors and Patients Part 3 1. The Great Fear 2. The New Division 3. The Proper Use of Liberty 4. Birth of the Asylum 5. The Anthropological Circle Appendices 1. Réponse à Derrida (Michel Foucault Derrida e no kaino Paideia (Tokyo) February 1972) 2. La Folie, l'absence d'oeuvre Appendix 1 of 1972 Edition 3. Mon corps, ce papier, ce feu Appendix 2 of 1972 Edition Notes Bibliography Critical Bibliography on Foucault’s History of Madness

'One of the major works of the twentieth century is finally available in English. This comprehensive translation finally overcomes one of the great divisions within the world of reason; an occasion to revisit Madness and Civilization as it was written.’ – Paul Rabinow, University of California, Berkeley, USA‘Now, at last, English speaking readers can have access to the depth of scholarship that underpins Foucault’s analysis: I have no doubt that this long awaited translation will have a transformative effect on a new generation of readers.’ - Nikolas Rose, London School of Economics, UK'…we are in the presence of a principal thesis that is truly original, by a man whose personality, whose intellectual "dynamism", whose talent for exposition all qualify him for high education' - Henri Gouhier, Principal Examiner of Foucault's Thesis' ... it returns a fragment of 'nature' to history and transforms madness, something we take to be a medieval phenomenon, into a phenomenon of civilization.' - Roland Barthes'Without a shadow of a doubt, the most original, influential and controversial text in this field during the last forty years. It remains as challenging now as on first publication. Its insights have still not been fully appreciated and absorbed.' - Roy Porter'This is quite an exceptional book of very high calibre - brilliantly written, intellectually rigorous, and with a thesis that thoroughly shakes the assumptions of traditional psychiatry.' - R.D. Laing'Extraordinary…rich and insistent, and almost unreasonable in its necessary repetitions.' - Maurice Blanchot'This magnificent book…requires a mind that is capable of being in turn a historian, a philosopher, a psychologist, and a sociologist-never simply one of these…This is not a method that could be offered as an example; it is not within the reach of just anybody. Something more than talent is necessary.' - Fernand Braudel, Annales'I have just finished reading your great book…You are a real explorer.' - Gaston Bachelard, in a letter to Michel Foucault'Scarcely any philosopher working on the history of philosophy, or historian working on the history of institutions, social science or sexuality can avoid confronting the challenge of Foucault's books.' - Michael Ignatieff, Times Literary Supplement