Madness & Civilization: Foucault's Analysis Contemporary Application

Focault’s Madness and Civilization argues that the image or theoretical construct of the nature of ‘madness’—with its physical mental and social components—precedes the etiology diagnosis and treatment of madness. This construct persists even when the construct is deeply flawed and without scientific proof. While Foucault was concerned with the etiology of madness in the classical period the 17th through 19th centuries in Europe this analysis and critique is still valid in contemporary contexts of ‘mental illness’ in Europe and America.