Madness and Politeia

Abstract

(ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) To men I am still the mean between a fool and a corpse. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 121 No longer a ship but a hospital. Madness and Civilization, 35 In the Preface to Madness and Civilization, Foucault emphasizes that the Greek Logos-crystallized in the Socratic dialectic-has no contrary.1 Likewise, the rational discourses of Western society refuse to recognize madness as a contrary to reason, regarding it instead as an error meant to be silenced. This refusal reveals an important connection between Foucault's archaeology of madness and Platonic philosophy in general-a link that becomes evident by reading the Republic through the lens of Foucault's analysis. Establishing a significant relationship between Madness and Civilization and Plato's Republic is hindered by the fact that Foucault begins his investigation at the end of the Middle Ages and not in Ancient Greece. Nevertheless, the approach taken by these two texts toward the theme of rational discourse reveals a strong connection between them. The Utopian ideals that permeate the Republic emphasize the necessity of philosophical rationality ruling unchecked in society. Foucault's analysis of madness questions the value and legitimacy of investing such a myopic governing principle with absolute authority. Perhaps more than any other issue, the interpretation of art provided by each author both underscores the intense antagonism between these texts while simultaneously revealing a noteworthy dialogue between them. In the Republic, Socrates banishes art-especially tragic poetry-as the great danger to the virtuous order of rational rule. Contrarily, Madness and Civilization champions art as the lone medium capable of challenging the tyranny of reason. Beneath this conflict, these texts share an interpretation of art that aligns it so closely with insanity as to suggest the potential identification of the two. For Socrates, this proximity reveals one of art's greatest threats, whereas for Foucault it evinces art's capacity to resist the power structures and prevailing discourses of reason. Still, Foucault and Socrates conceive of the relationship between art and insanity differently. Whereas the former believes art capable of expressing a dark truth of nothingness by making present death and void, the latter admonishes artistic expression for appealing to the baser appetites, thereby causing them to usurp an individual's soul. These disparate views regarding the power of art reveal distinct conceptions of madness as (1) hubristic excess in Plato and (2) the overwhelming terror of nothingness in Foucault. Reading Madness and Civilization against the Republic reveals the presence of Foucauldian themes submerged just below the surface of the Platonic text. Namely, Foucault argues that a culture's relationship to madness is most evident in the distinction between confinement and embarkation. A society that confines the insane understands madness as an error that must be either cured or silenced. A society that practices embarkation-best illustrated through the ships of fools in the Middle Ages-recognizes a possible truth to madness that presents a fundamental challenge to the rational foundation of Western science, religion, and morality. In this sense, embarkation admits a potential contrary to reason, whereas confinement utterly denies it. The character of Cephalus allows us to develop the relationship between Foucault's analysis and the Republic. Socrates also desires to eliminate all the consequences of unreason, including madness, the fear of death, and art. Cephalus unites these three themes in a single character, so that his early exit from the scene portends the exclusion of them all. Further, his identification with precisely these three concepts suggests that Plato, too, may recognize them as essentially related. This essay begins by developing Foucault's understanding of madness, the relationship between madness and art, and the distinction between embarkation and confinement as explained in Madness and Civilization. …