In his book Madness and Civilization, what does Michel Foucault mean by “the great confinement”? Madness and Civilization revolve around Michel Foucault life and perception of the society on the different vices affecting them. The book is restricted to debates and opinions that surrounded the anti-psychiatric movement. Foucault wrote the book on various perspectives of the society. Some of the perspectives include: cultural political philosophical legal From the historical point of view, it cannot be deduced on whether madness can be described as a religious or philosophical occurrence. Additionally, other civilizations considered madness as an objective medical core. Some types of madness may have developed as a result of psychiatry. Through …show more content…
It occurred in the classical age as an unreason to reduce madness to silence. This was a contrary to the Renaissance period where the mad were highly regarded as the functioning individuals in the society (Foucault, 2006). There was a need to develop a fully functioning society in the period. This led to inflicting of punishment to those persons who lacked reason and behaved foolishly with childish behaviors. The law perceived the reasonable persons and rational members of the society as a success. The great confinement period saw the increase in the number of institutions and prisons in Paris to detain the irrational. The detention facilities housed the unemployed, prisoners, insane and the have-nots. These facilities were not medical establishments because those who had reason were allowed to imprison the poor and mad people in the society. Foucault saw the high confinement as a deliberate policy since one percent of Paris population during the period was imprisoned. > [T]he Hopital General in Paris was established in 1656 as a center for the irrational in the society (Foucault 1965, p.47). The community was not given a chance to appeal the decision made by the rational rather there was an absolute sovereignty over them. There was an extension of the rule across France and the rest of Europe where several governments adopted the project of confinement. Their confinement centers were previously known as correction …show more content…
I agree with Foucault interpretation of insanity as a culturally constructed phenomenon. There is a different perception of mad people in the past and present times. According to Foucault, insanity was regarded as a regular event in history (Gutting, 2005). With the changing cultural activities and perception of people, insanity has been able to be interpreted differently as the previous prediction. Interpretation of insanity has been categorized in the renaissance, classical and modern periods. In each of these periods, the evolving cultures of both the society and representative governments have had the ability to define it in different manners. Foucault focuses on the exclusion of other irrational persons in the cities. The insane were secretly isolated from the society by being placed in the confinement facilities. Various cultures did not approve of their existence as they were termed as idlers and thus there was a need to punish them. The classical period applied authoritarian strategy with an aim to maintain a socio-cultural order in the society (Argyriadis, 2016). Mad persons were first displaced and confined from the rational individuals. Studies were then conducted to determine the cure for insanity. Insane people were known to have a different cultural behavior. Later, the condition is diagnosed as a medical disorder, which requires special treatment. In the Renaissance period, insanity was culturally constrained phenomenon to some extent. People believed
Due to the limited knowledge about mental diseases, doctors had to resort to people's word and uneducated test, previously talked about. The mental institutions trusted the people and that was a big mistake as people lied and settled disputes by saying the other person was insane and getting them sent to an institutions. An example of this was Elizabeth Packard who was put in an institution for saying this, “They are antagonistic systems… Christianity upholds God’s authority; Calvinism upholds the Devil’s authority.” Elizabeth's husband was christian and he did not like that she said this very much so he told the government that she was insane and they believed him.
Taking a Stand for the mentally ill Thesis Dorothea Dix took a stand by recognizing the importance of establishing mental institutions. Her philosophy saved mentally unstable people from the harsh treatments they once received in jails Background The conditions that the mentally ill lived under in the mid-19th century were unfitting. Unstable individuals were imprisoned and mistreated. People who suffered from insanity were treated worse than criminals.
Whereas mental asylums in the 1870s focused on methodology, lunatic asylums in the early 1900s tackled the issue of sanitation and communicable diseases. Beginning in 1912, the Indian Government, under the influence of the Britain, passed the Indian Lunacy Act of 1912.14 This act specified guidelines for the management of mental asylums, including various procedures for admissions and standards of care.14 At this time, changes were also occurring structurally within the mental asylums in Britain.14 These changes were transforming the care of the mentally ill into a more professional setting.14 As a result, British India underwent similar transformations to the structure of their cells and the status of mental conditions. For instance, controlling
Solitary confinement began as a standard punishment of the penitentiary system in the United States in the nineteenth century. It was a response to the philosophical transformation influenced by the Enlightenment, that sought to distance punishment from brutality (Cloud, Drucker, Browne, & Parsons, 2015). The penitentiary system was developed as a more humane alternative to the torture and executions that were happening in England (Cloud et al., 2015). Instead of having corporal and capital punishment, such as public hangings and whippings, individuals were confined to their own cells (Guenther, 2013). Supporters, such as the Quakers, believed that this confinement would force the individuals to confront their own conscience, and they would
Yes, taking these precautions was sane of him, but stalking, murdering, and hallucinating are all traits that lead towards being insane. In the end, the narrator did prove to be insane, with his reasonless murder, and absurd hallucinations. But all in all, even if the evidence does lead to the narrator being insane, as Poe once said, “The scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our
The insane are known to have been cursed with unclean spirits ever since the beginning of America who takes its views from the Old World. It was only during the Second Great Awakening that people, Christian activists and often women, sought to reform the prisons and asylums. For Americans, asylums are now remnants of the past; the mentally ill are now bestowed the right to live normal lives and they are now even given the choice to decide if they wish to seek help and take medication. Even so, it is undeniable that people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder are unwillingly trapped inside a mind often not their own. Some of them, if left alone and uncared for, face dangers in society.
The irrational behavior can be judge as reasonable in many
Insanity is perceived in different aspects depending on what or how someone ended up insane. For example, a person can be driven insane by someone else or by the way they were raised. However, insanity is not a trait that you inherit or are born with, it is a concept or state of being that grows and develops as a person faces experiences throughout their lifetime and how they react to said experiences. In Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, it is shown Victor is driven insane by his circumstances rather than a force he had within himself all along.
In today’s society, when someone mentions a mental institution most people picture a dark, dirty, and horrendous hospital like structure. While this image may at times be accurate, this was not always the case. Mental institutions, otherwise known as asylums, have a past full of ups and downs. During different time periods standards for care in these facilities fluctuated from proper care to improper care. With more of an understanding of these mental abnormalities we have a better chance of finding solutions and resolving them.
When people hear the words, “mental illness,” they think of insane asylums and psychiatric wards, but that’s not necessarily the case. Yes, back in the 1800’s they did have asylums for people with mental disorders. But that was when doctors didn’t fully understand mental illnesses and disorders. But currently, doctors are able to comprehend illnesses and disorders.
Staveill started to develop destructive habits in solitary confinement. I believe Mead would also add to Goffman and the idea of total institutions while being in solitary confinement is that it disrupts the process of “I” and “me”. Mead argues that we gain our sense of self through our interaction with others. This is very important to look at because in Solitary confinement people are isolated and what we can assume based on mead's theory of how we come to know who we are is that solitary confinement is doing more harm to the individual rather than helping them because they lose their sense of self. In the essay, it is evident that this occurs.
Intro: “It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane” (PHILIP K. DICK, Valis). In present day America laws have been placed that prevent people who are “insane” to be guilty of the crimes they commit. In short, insanity is the state of being seriously mentally ill relating to madness. This is presented in the book Medea written by Euripides through her point of view. In Medea, a surge of insanity purges her after she is betrayed by her husband Jason causing many cruel and harsh actions to follow from her.
What exactly defines one as “insane” versus “sane”, and where is the boundary between the two? Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” explores exactly that: the short story initially seems to be a tale of a 19th century woman forced into the notorious rest cure popularized at the time by male doctors--however, as the plot progresses, it becomes a much deeper commentary not only on societal limitations imposed on women, but also on the blurred line separating sanity from insanity. Gilman explores the boundary between sanity and insanity with the usage of different literary elements; she expresses how the boundary is “paper-thin” through the usage of symbolism, shows the subtle conversion to insanity by utilizing a stream of consciousness
Without a clear-cut definition for insanity not only does the word lose its power, but it also causes people to create their on definition for the word, usually with themselves
In the book “One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest” Ken Kesey shows that the “insanity” of the patients is really just normal insecurities and their label as insane by society is immoral. This appears in the book concerning Billy Bibbits problem with his mom, Harding's problems with his wife, and that the patients are in the ward