
Madness or Mental Illness? Revisiting Historians of Psychiatry- Gomory
Abstract
- Are the mad because of mental, physical, or environmental vulnerabilities?
- No scientific evidence for any theory of specific causes of madness
- A view of madness as a medical disease has been received concrete and rhetorical
support from the government mental health bureau, big pharma, mental health groups,
organized professions
- Historical “fact” about madness supporting the disease model are shaped by beliefs, bias,
error or ambiguous rhetoric rather than facts of the matter
Introduction:
- Medical historian Roy Porter notes our current definitions depend on the same
terminology used in the 16th century
- Porters definition of madness:
oA generic name for the whole range of people thought to be in some way, more or
less, abnormal in ideas or behaviours
oSuggests that the word does have utility
Capture within an apparently comprehensive category all those abnormal
people who significantly disturb society or themselves
oEven today there is no consensus upon the nature of mental illness
- Is madness a medical disease? A persons misfortune? Incompetent handling or greater or
lesser problems in living? Social labelling of deviance?
- The hypothesized causes, determinants, or contributing factors are as perplexingly varied
- Neither the many theories nor the implied causes of madness have been scientifically
validated
- Groups with enormous political, economic clout have taken up one theory about madness
in particular
oThe psychiatric medical model
Supported by the government mental health division, pharma companies,
mental health lobby groups, etc.
Madness as a Word:
- Madness as a word stitched together to represent or echo something related to human
behaviour or one’s perception of the behaviour
- Thought of the same type of word as “trees”
oServes as a label for collecting many disparate type of plants judged to belong
under the category tress
oThough these plants may share few common elements other than their category
name
- Disjunctive category
oAny two of its members each uniform in terms of an ultimate criterion may jab
emo defining attributes in common
- Words and categories matter
oCategorizing is a fundamental and necessary act of human survival
Helps people make sense and perhaps to respond and control the
mysterious nonhuman noumena
Makes up the “out there”
- Words do not have any fixed meaning or direct connection to material reality