The young Foucault and the critique of psychological reason: On the origins of Madness and Civilization

Abstract

Taking into account the wide influence and the germinal role of Madness and Civilisation (1961) in the development of Michel Foucault’s thought, and in order to clarify its theoretical background and its complex genesis, this article provides an analysis of the early writings of the French philosopher on the problems of psychiatry and psychology. First, I examine his position concerning the conceptual assumptions of mental medicine and the shortcomings he detected in the main currents of psychopathological thought (basically, evolutionism, psychoanalysis, and phenomenology). Afterwards, I describe his first attempt to outline a global interpretation of the phenomenon of mental illness from a social and cultural standpoint resorting to Marxist alienation theory and Pavlovian reflexology. And, finally, I show how some of the most significant elements and insights that, within a short time, would crystallise and find a final form in Madness and Civilisation, were gradually shaped along his production of those years.