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Since the time of Hippocrates, madness has typically been viewed through the lens of disease, dysfunction, and defect. In
Madness, philosopher of science Justin Garson presents a radically different paradigm for conceiving of madness and the forms that it takes. In this paradigm, which he calls
madness-as-strategy, madness is neither a disease nor a defect, but a
designed feature, like the heart or lungs. The book will be essential reading for philosophers of medicine and psychiatry, historians and sociologists of medicine, and mental health service users, survivors, and activists, for its alternative and liberating vision of what it means to be mad.
List of contents
- Introduction
- Part I: The Dual Teleology of Madness
- Chapter 1: Hippocrates and the Magicians
- Chapter 2: The Suffocation of The Mother
- Chapter 3: Madness as Misuse and Defect
- Chapter 4: An Infinitely Wise Contrivance
- Part II: Madness and The Sound Mind
- Chapter 5: A Temporary Surrogate of Reason
- Chapter 6: The Mountebanks of The Mind
- Chapter 7: The Miracle of Sanity
- Chapter 8: Delusion as Castle and Refuge
- Chapter 9: A Salutary Effort of Nature
- Chapter 10: The Biologization of Kant
- Part III: Madness and The Goal of Evolution
- Chapter 11: The Strategies of Wish-Fulfillment
- Chapter 12: Madness as Creativity and Conquest
- Chapter 13: From Retreat to Resistance
- Chapter 14: Confronting the Wounded Animal
- Chapter 15: The Darwinization Of Madness
About the author
Justin Garson is a professor of philosopher at Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York. In addition to
Madness: A Philosophical Exploration (2022), he is also the author of
The Biological Mind: Second Edition (2022), and the forthcoming
The Madness Pill: The Quest to Create Insanity and One Doctor's Discovery that Transformed Psychiatry. He also writes for PsychologyToday.com, Aeon and MadInAmerica.com on changing paradigms of mental illness.
Summary
Since the time of Hippocrates, madness has typically been viewed through the lens of disease, dysfunction, and defect. Madness, like all other disease, happens when something in the mind, or in the brain, does not operate the way that it should or as nature intended. In this paradigm, the role of the healer is simply to find the dysfunction and fix it. This remains the dominant perspective in global psychiatry today.
In Madness: A Philosophical Exploration, philosopher of science Justin Garson presents a radically different paradigm for conceiving of madness and the forms that it takes. In this paradigm, which he calls madness-as-strategy, madness is neither a disease nor a defect, but a designed feature, like the heart or lungs. That is to say, at least sometimes, when someone is mad, everything inside of them is working exactly as it should and as nature intended. Through rigorous engagement with texts spanning the classical era to Darwinian medicine, Garson shows that madness-as-strategy is not a new conception. Thus, more than a history of science or a conceptual genealogy, Madness is a recovery mission. In recovering madness-as-strategy, it leads us beyond today's dominant medical paradigm toward a very different form of thinking and practice.
This book is essential reading for philosophers of medicine and psychiatry, particularly for those who seek to understand the nature of health, disease, and mental disorder. It will also be a valuable resource for historians and sociologists of medicine for its innovative approach to the history of madness. Most importantly, it will be useful for mental health service users, survivors, and activists, who seek an alternative and liberating vision of what it means to be mad.
Additional text
Justin Garson's Madness: A Philosophical Exploration offers a conception of madness that infuses hope to those whose lives are touched by it...By successfully marshalling the tools of philosophy, psychiatry, and history, Garson offers new conceptual resources for making sense of madness and loosens the grip of the madness-as-dysfunction model in contemporary psychiatry...Garson's analysis is rich, compelling, and even poetic.
