Bedlam

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Dinesh ^club

. . . . Obsessed with the manners and mores, hostile to those who did not comply with them, and titillated by alien people brought back from colonial territories, the eighteenth century imposed severe punishment of those whose erratic behavior seemed to threaten convention, no matter what their class or nationality. Segregated from their society, they were placed in the all-lunatic world of Badlam (in England) or the horror hospital of Bicetre (in France,) places that would drive the most implacably rational to insanity. Though such institutions had long existed -- Bedlam was founded in 1247 and was a home for pauper lunatics by 1547 -- they came into their own in the eighteenth century. The concept of “reason” implies natural concord among human beings and is essentially a conformist nation; “reason” is defined by consensus. The idea of incorporating extremes into the social order is antithetical to such reason. By the standards the Age of Reason, extremes of mental condition are not remote points on a logic continuum; they are points wholly outside of a defined coherence. In the eighteenth century, the mentally ill were outsiders without rights or position. So societally constricted were the delusional and the depressed that William Blake complained, “ghosts are not lawful.” ~ Page 309

4 years ago.

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