Continental Philosophy of Psychiatry: The Lure of Madness

by Alastair Morgan

This book explores how the continental philosophical tradition in the 20th century attempted to understand madness as madness. It traces the paradoxical endeavour of reason attempting to understand madness without dissolving the inherent strangeness and otherness of madness. It provides a comprehensive overview of the contributions of phenomenology, critical theory, psychoanalysis, post-structuralism and anti-psychiatry to continental philosophy and psychiatry. The book outlines an intellectual tradition of psychiatry that is both fascinated by and withdraws from madness. Madness is a lure for philosophy in two senses; as both trap and provocation. It is a trap because this philosophical tradition constructs an otherness of madness so profound, that it condemns madness to silence. However, the idea of madness as another world is also a fertile provocation because it respects the non-identity of madness to reason. The book concludes with some critical reflections on the role of madness in contemporary philosophical thought.

Genres: Psychiatry, Philosophy

438 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 10, 2022

Reviews

[Seppe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A walk through 20th century continental philosophy of psychiatry. Focusing on the understandability of psychotic or 'mad' phenomena. The history starts with Karl Jaspers' 1913 'ununderstandability hypothesis' in Allgemeine Psychopathologie, in which he states that psychotic experiences are empathically ununderstandable, untill the emergence of institutional psychotherapy as a form of social psychiatric reterritorialization up untill the 1980s, it gives an overview of continental philosophers in dialogue with the growingly fruitful and - even so - disenchanting tradition of psychiatry.
Short chapters are useful as a point of reference, as well with author interjunctions to form a more totalizing perspective on the myriad of 'philosophies of psychiatry' in last century.
Taking in mind influencal writers such as Jaspers, Bleuler, Freud, Jung, phenomenologists as Husserl, Bergson, Heidegger but also social theorists Marx, Adorno, Lacan, Foucault, Fanon, Deleuze&Guattari, and R.D.Laing (to name a few)
This is a monumental attempt as an introduction to traditions and concepts, however keeping an overarching logic.
I wonder about the thoroughness of some of the chapters, but it is food for further thinking.

If anything it opens up questions on the nature of the polarities of alienation and authenticity, as well as the polarities of the individual and the social experienced world. Madness as a limit-problem in the history of continental thought.

[Cody Bivins-Starr · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I had some great ideas sparked for my own research during my reading, this wasn’t necessarily based on the ideas presented by Morgan himself but rather my own understanding of thinkers he was summarizing. There really isn’t a core argument to the book, other than perhaps to show that madness plays various roles in continental thinking. The summaries of various movements and thinkers are mostly good, albeit there are some generalizations that seem to be more academic concessions to placate discourse than actual observations (like his statement that “obviously” Lacan is “problematic” for essentializing gender). However, beyond a good summary of how madness is central to so much of continental philosophy, there’s nothing straightforwardly contributed here. It would probably make a good textbook for an undergraduate course on madness and philosophy, as it helps clarify some difficult philosophical concepts by placing them in conversation with others (context) and explaining them in a mostly readable way.

A nitpicking point I want to make is that the book is just poorly written. It’s clunky, reads like a drafted paper rather than an edited book. Likewise, other than the continental theme, there is no real feeling that the book is structured in any intentional way. Frankly, I’m somewhat surprised this was published as it is.