What is your relationship with ‘madness’? Do you agree with the strictly bio-medical approach to madness, or believe that there might be something else to it?
I have been struggling with identifying myself as bipolar, and instead, focused on art as a tool to help me to cope with overwhelming stigma. I write in my spare time and I find it very therapeutic. Do you also use art as a therapy?
But let’s look briefly at madness and art.
Michel Foucault, the French philosopher, said that madness is a social construct that has been created by the forces in power, in order to control different aspects of ‘weirdness’. Shakespeare touched on the theme of ‘madness’ in most of his works. For instance, in ‘King Lear’ the concept of madness is explored as both punishment and insight (Byrd, 1974)
(‘Lear and the Fool in the storm’, by Johann Ramberg, Folger Shakespeare library).
During the Renaissance period, according to Foucault, madness was sometimes perceived as possession of a different kind of wisdom, where the mad were viewed as interesting people, deemed of admiration by some artists.
The famous painting by Bosch, The Ship of Fools, or The Satire of the Debauched Revelers, clearly shows this different view on madness.
In this painting we can see the debauchery caused by some distinguished members of society. The two figures in front are a Franciscan friar and a nun, quite unthinkable at the time of the painting (1490-1500).
Bosch’s Ship of Fools symbolizes the medieval practice of sending the mad away on ships to a ‘fools’ paradise’. A lone fool reminds us of the ship’s purpose, but Bosch includes ‘sane’ hypocrites to blur the line.
This modern take (Narrenschiff by Thomas Bühler, 2009) reimagines the medieval practice.
It’s not the mad who should be sent away, but the hypocritical members of society harming others in God’s name, one could argue.
Moving from the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment, the view of madness started to change. The Age of Enlightenment was characterized by the predominance of reason, where all manifestations of weirdness started to be frowned upon. During the Enlightenment mad people started to be institutionalized, put away in secure facilities but still depicted as curiosities, where the public seeking entertainment could get it through the visits to asylums. In asylums the ‘normals’ could watch the mad, laugh at them, and think perhaps that they were lucky to have escaped such a predicament.
(A Clinical Lesson at the Salpetriere, by Pierre Aristide Andre Brouillet (1887).
The painting shows us a clinical demonstration given to postgraduate students by the famous neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (Netchitailova, 2019).
This painting was painted before the official history of psychiatry started, but it shows the state of psychiatry as it is now. There are several doctors who claim to understand madness through words, without clear medical tests confirming the ‘diagnosis’.
But as a human being, when I look at the painting, I am not interested in what Charcot has to say. I can guess what he is trying to say. I am interested in the patient—I want to hear her story.
(La Salptrière by Tony Robert-Fleury, 1795)
In ‘La Salptrière’ we can see a famous clinician, Philippe Pinnel, who was a chief physician at the famous Hospice de la La Salpȇtrière, an asylum for the insane in Paris. Philippe Pinnel advocated a more humanistic approach to the treatment of psychiatric patients, and there are some rumors that he even managed to liberate some inmates from their ordeal.
In ‘La Salptrière’ the artist shows how Pinnel orders the chains to be removed from a patient, which also demonstrates the growing power of psychiatry. Give the chains to one kind man in power, and he will liberate the oppressed. Give it to someone who wants to abuse the same power, and you are chained for life.
What do you think of Pinnel’s approach?
Moving back to the modern age, we don’t see psychiatric patients in physical chains anymore, but the power is still strongly in the hands of the psychiatrists, who can, by the act of simple words, deny a person their freedom, independence, and joy of living. There are no physical chains, but there are still walls: walls of the psychiatric hospitals, walls of the forced injections, walls of diagnoses which create stigma and put a mental burden on one’s mind.
(The scream Edvard Munch, 1895)
I can go on for ages with my critique of psychiatry, but the main point I am trying to make is that we shouldn’t judge those who appear as different or weird, we should instead promote kindness and understanding. The world of art shows us that the dilemma of madness isn’t purely based in the domain of psychiatry and bio-medical explanations. Madness can be also explored in the light of existing power relations and current discourse and ideology. We can change the narrative by providing stories from the ‘other’ side. What if madness is nothing else but extra creativity? What if it’s a connection to the Devine? What if, it’s a call for some spiritual healing and awakening of one’s soul?
(Mathias Grunewald, The Temptation of St. Anthony (1512–1516)
I explored the connection between madness and art in my articles in Mad in America and ‘Disability and Society’, that was reprinted by ‘Mad Studies Reader, 2025’.
In my daily life I continue exploring this connection by writing. I also consider it as art. Writing is therapeutic, and so many other expressions of art, including music and paintings. What about you? Do you also find art helpful?
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