Hospital General and Bicêtre (Symbols)
In the Preface to Madness and Civilization, Foucault introduces two events that bookmark the period his history covers. These are real historical events, but they are also symbolic of the larger transformation he studies. The first, in 1657, is the creation of the General Hospital in France, which was built to confine the poor, along with the mad. The second, in 1794, is the liberation of prisoners from the Bicêtre Hospital in 1794, leaving only those who were “mad.” From 1657 to 1794, then, we see a movement from thinking of madness as part of a larger category of social delinquency to it being an isolated phenomenon with its own spaces and techniques for treatment. The events symbolize this transformation, providing an image of the larger social process Foucault narrates in his history.
Ship of Fools (Allegory)
Chapter 1 of Madness and Civilization is titled “Stultifera Navis,” which is Latin for “Ship of Fools.” The phrase comes from an allegory in Book 6 of the ancient text Republic by Plato. The story uses the image of a ship run by fools to criticize people who succumb to their vices and try to exert authority by preying on moral weakness. Foucault’s interest is how, in the Renaissance period, the allegory started to be told and adapted with surging popularity. For Foucault, this is itself allegorical for the ways in which people were beginning to imagine the “confinement” of the foolish, just as a ship is a container separated from the rest of society. People begin to love this story because it resonates with the ways in which they understand the place of madness, contained and outside of society.
Confinement (Motif)
The recurring motif throughout Madness and Civilization is confinement. It is the constant through Foucault’s history. The book is a study in the changes in who or what is confined. In the medieval period, Foucault says it was leprosy—a physical disease. By the beginning of the classical period he describes in the late 1500s, it “unreason,” a category that included the poor, the criminal, and the mad. These people were confined just like the lepers were in the previous period, although for a different reason. By the end of the classical period, it is madness that is confined alone in its own special institution, the asylum. This is part of both isolating and intensifying meanings attached to madness, including the special threat it seems to pose to society as a psychological problem.
