Elsewheres of madness: an archeogenealogical study about the production of the mentally ill figure

Abstract

This paper, following an archeogenealogical perspective of Michel Foucault, aims to investigate the mentally ill figure defined by the emerging medical/psychological practices and discourses in the 17th and 18h centuries, such as the practice of internment of the alienated; and in the 19th century, with the advent of anatomopathology, i.e. a new medical rationality based on the objectification of the doctor-patient relationship, as a clinical practice. This research will be conducted in three parts corresponding to Foucault's investigations of his works, including History of Madness, Birth of the Clinic and Psychiatric Power. From the studies presented in History of Madness, we directed our analysis to the 17th and 18th centuries. The History of Madness is a book that makes an archeology of a social perception of the insane. In Birth of the Clinic, an archeology of the positive look is presented. Finally, we will enter the Foucaultian genealogy with Psychiatric Power to ascertain the historical developments of the 19th century about the devices that produced the mentally ill figure.

Keywords: Archeogenealogy., depsychiatrization., subject., mentally ill figure., modern medicine.