The concept of "madness" is not one with which psychologists, psychiatrists, or neurologists, of the 21st century have any dealings. Musicians, yes ... see above. Philosophers also still talk about madness, because philosophy is uniquely keyed to its past, still arguing cases litigated by Plato or Philo or Lao-Tsu. Anyway: Justin Garson, a professor of philosophy at CUNY, has written a book simply titled Madness: A Philosophical Exploration . Garson's point is that in ancient times there were two very different views of what the ancients called madness. There was madness as dysfunction, or madness as strategy. When medieval Christian philosophers addressed the point, they tended to combine both ideas. Madness could serve as an earthly purgatory, both punishing and improving. It is early modern thinkers, from Locke to Kant, whom Garson credits/blames for the dominance of madness-as-dysfunction in our own time. A review devoted largely to summari...
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My recent reading has included Eri Hotta's book of the title and subtitle above. Eri Hotta, a Japanese woman who has been educated, and been an educator, just about everywhere -- the US, the UK, Israel, etc. looks like this: Parts of the book are based upon a diary kept by Kafu. Kafu was a very distinguished man of letters, though by 1941 his own prime as a writer/editor was passed. he had founded an important literary magazine in 1916. At any rate, by 1941 his writing energies seemed to have been going almost exclusively into his own journals. But he was a keen observer of the world around him, and keen on listening to the people there and their stories. This is something he wrote, in the summer before the attack on Pearl Harbor. In Hankou, [China], this young soldier and his comrades broke into a house of a physician who had two beautiful daughters. The doctor and his wife begged the Japanese soldiers not to touch the girls, offering them all the gold and silver ...