Clare O’Farrell, Foucault, Radio Interview 2: Madness Silenced, Refracted Input blog, 29 July 2025
Citation from Michel Foucault, Histoire de la folie a l’âge classique. Entretien avec Michel Foucault. Diffusion le 11 juillet 1961 sur France III National. In Michel Foucault, Entretiens radiophoniques, 1961-1983, Flammarion / VRIN / INA, 2024, pp. 17-19.
‘[…] no other society except ours, grants the status of mental illness alone to the madman. In all other societies, the status of the mad is much more complex and in a sense richer. The mad have a religious significance, a magical significance. The madman is out in the open, his manifestations eagerly awaited with attempts made to decypher them. But this kind of annihilation by psychology, medicine and mental pathology is characteristic of our culture; and up to a certain point at least, it’s an impoverishment.’ (p.19)
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