Hegel's Theory Of Madness (suny Series In Hegelian Studies)

This book shows how an understanding of the nature and role of insanity in Hegel's writing provides intriguing new points of access to many of the central themes of his larger philosophic project. Berthold-Bond situates Hegel's theory of madness within the history of psychiatric practice during the great reform period at the turn of the eighteenth century, and shows how Hegel developed a middle path between the stridently opposed camps of "empirical" and "romantic" medicine, and of "somatic" and "psychical" practitioners. A key point of the book is to show that Hegel does not conceive of madness and health as strictly opposing states, but as kindred phenomena sharing many of the same underlying mental structures and strategies, so that the ontologies of insanity and rationality involve a mutually illuminating, mirroring relation. Hegel's theory is tested against the critiques of the institution of psychiatry and the very concept of madness by such influential twentieth-century authors as Michel Foucault and Thomas Szasz, and defended as offering a genuinely reconciling position in the contemporary debate between the "social labeling" and "medical" models of mental illness. Hegel's Theory of Madness 2 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 12 Abbreviations 13 Note on the Zusätze to Hegel's Lectures 15 Chapter One Introduction 18 Chapter Two Hagel's Place in Early Nineteenth Century Views of Madness 26 Hegel's Middle Path 27 The Turning Point 27 Contesting Factions 29 Roman and Empirical Medicine 30 The Somatic and Psychic Schools 32 Hegel's Speculative Philosophy of Medicine 34 Hegel's Anthropology of Madness: The Reversion of the Mind to Nature 42 Regression, Displacement, Dream 42 Hegel and the Romantics 45 Hegel, the Somatic/Psychic Controversy, and Animal Magnetism 46 Chapter Three Madness as the Decentering of Reason 53 The Anatomy of Madness 55 Withdrawal, Separation, and Decentering 56 Feeling and Language 58 Nature, Dream, and the Unconscious 60 Madness and the Developed Consciousness 61 Desire 62 Despair 63 Are We All Mad? 64 Madness in Relation to Stoicism, Skepticism, and the Unhappy Consciousness 67 The Intimacy of Madness: Christiane, Hölderlin, and the Limits of an Ontology of Madness 70 Madness and Hegel's Idealism 80 The Quest for Unity in the Midst of Discord67 80 Idealism, Madness, and History 82 Chapter Four Madness and the Second Face of Desire 87 The Two Faces of Desire 89 'I am I,'Narcissism, and the Death Instinct 91 Consciousness and Self-Consciousness 91 The Lure of a Primordial Unity 93 The Death Instinct and the Work of Destruction 95 The Role of Destruction in Despair and Madness 97 The Other Face of Desire: the Power of Evolution 99 The Fall 102 Eden: Nature, Innocence, and Evil 102 The Serpent and the Curse 104 Forgetfulness 106 Labor 108 Chapter Five Madness and the Unconscious 110 Placing Hegel in Dialogue with Nietzsche and Freud 111 The Definition of Madness: Regression, Separation, Nostalgia 115 Hegel and Freud 115 Features of the Unconscious 115 Health and Illness 117 Enter Nietzsche 119 Illness and "The Great Health" 119 The Critique of Metaphysical Constructions of Reality 121 Madness, Dreams, and Sublimation. 122 Dreams and Art 122 Art, Sublimation, and Repression 123 The Status of Privacy and Community 126 The Double Center of Madness 127 Chapter Six Madness, Action, and Intentionality 133 The Idea of Un-Intentionality 134 The Anatomy of Un-Intentionality 136 The Circle of Action 136 Hegel's Critique of Anti-Consequentialism 138 The Recoil of Action and Alienation 140 Intentionality and Language 142 The Unintentional and the Unconscious 148 Madness and Unintentionality 152 Chapter Seven Madness and Tragedy 157 On the Borderline: The Between-Space of Madness and 'Normalcy' 158 The Ontology of Disunion 160 The Broken World 160 Madness and The Tragic Collision of Opposites 161 Madness, Tragedy, and Despair 164 Submersion, Darkness, and the Infernal Powers of Nature 167 The Return to Origins, a Place Prior to Time 169 Physis and Nomos 170 Ajax and Antigone 171 Issues of Patriarchy 173 Myth and History 176 Inversion, Ambiguity, and Guilt 178 The Inverted World 178 The Law of the Heart and Tragic Inversion 179 The Unconscious 181 Evil and Guilt 183 Ontology and Anguish: The Logic and Horror of Evil 186 Darkened Mirrors 189 Chapter Eight Madness and Society: Coming to Terms with Hegel's Silence 191 The Absent Stage Setting 191 Foucault and Szasz: The Social-Political Invention of Madness 194 Some Differences and Similarities 194 The Semantics of Madness 196 The Politics of Semantic Transformation 198 Habeas Corpus: You Should Have the Body 201 Decoding Hegel's Silence 203 The Context of the "Anthropology" of Madness 204 The Life of the Soul as Pre-History 204 From Anthropology to Phenomenology: From Origins to History 206 Hegel's Ontology of Madness as an 'Abbreviation'? 208 Satisfying the Writ of Habeas Corpus: We Have the Body 211 Therapeutics: Coercion or Liberation? 215 Hegel's Pinelian Heritage: 'Moral Therapy' and the Imperative of Labor 216 The Missing Link: Poverty, Destitution, Social Marginalization 220 A Revolutionary Therapeutics? 225 Extending Hegel's 'Middle Path': Reconciling the Social Constitution of Madness with Ontology 227 Notes 231 1. Introduction 231 2. Hegel's Place in Early Nineteenth Century Views of Madness 234 3. Madness as the Decentering of Reason 240 4. Madness and the Second Face of Desire 246 5. Madness and the Unconscious 249 6. Madness, Action, and Intentionality 256 7. Madness and Tragedy 261 8. Madness and Society: Coming to Terms with Hegel's Silence 266 Bibliography 276 Hegel 276 Works on Hegel 278 Other Works 286 Author Index 303 A 303 B 303 C 303 D 303 E 304 F 304 G 304 H 305 I 305 J 305 K 305 L 305 M 306 N 306 O 306 P 306 R 306 S 306 T 307 V 307 W 307 Z 307 Subject Index 308 A 308 B 309 C 309 D 310 E 311 F 311 G 312 H 312 I 313 J 313 K 313 L 313 M 314 O 316 P 316 R 317 S 318 T 319 U 319 V 320 W 320 Z 320 This book shows how an understanding of the nature and role of insanity in Hegel's writing provides intriguing new points of access to many of the central themes of his larger philosophic project. Berthold-Bond situates Hegel's theory of madness within the history of psychiatric practice during the great reform period at the turn of the eighteenth century, and shows how Hegel developed a middle path between the stridently opposed camps of “empirical” and “romantic” medicine, and of “somatic” and “psychical” practitioners.A key point of the book is to show that Hegel does not conceive of madness and health as strictly opposing states, but as kindred phenomena sharing many of the same underlying mental structures and strategies, so that the ontologies of insanity and rationality involve a mutually illuminating, mirroring relation. Hegel's theory is tested against the critiques of the institution of psychiatry and the very concept of madness by such influential twentieth-century authors as Michel Foucault and Thomas Szasz, and defended as offering a genuinely reconciling position in the contemporary debate between the “social labeling” and “medical” models of mental illness.Daniel Berthold-Bond is Professor of Philosophy at Bard College. He is the author of Hegel's Grand Synthesis: A Study of Being, Thought, and History, also published by SUNY Press.