{"product_id":"a-philosophy-of-madness-isbn-9780262044288","title":"A Philosophy of Madness","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe philosophy of psychosis and the psychosis of philosophy: a philosopher draws on his experience of madness.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this book, philosopher and linguist Wouter Kusters examines the philosophy of psychosis—and the psychosis of philosophy. By analyzing the experience of psychosis in philosophical terms, Kusters not only emancipates the experience of the psychotic from medical classification, he also emancipates the philosopher from the narrowness of textbooks and academia, allowing philosophers to engage in real-life praxis, philosophy \u003ci\u003ein vivo\u003c\/i\u003e. Philosophy and madness—Kusters's preferred, non-medicalized term—coexist, one mirroring the other. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKusters draws on his own experience of madness—two episodes of psychosis, twenty years apart—as well as other first-person narratives of psychosis. Speculating about the maddening effect of certain words and thought, he argues, and demonstrates, that the steady flow of philosophical deliberation may sweep one into a full-blown acute psychotic episode. Indeed, a certain kind of philosophizing may result in confusion, paradoxes, unworldly insights, and circular frozenness reminiscent of madness. Psychosis presents itself to the psychotic as an inescapable truth and reality.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKusters evokes the mad person's philosophical or existential amazement at reality, thinking, time, and space, drawing on classic autobiographical accounts of psychoses by Antonin Artaud, Daniel Schreber, and others, as well as the work of phenomenological psychiatrists and psychologists and such phenomenologists as Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. He considers the philosophical mystic and the mystical philosopher, tracing the mad undercurrent in the Husserlian philosophy of time; visits the cloud castles of mystical madness, encountering LSD devotees, philosophers, theologians, and nihilists; and, falling to earth, finds anxiety, emptiness, delusions, and hallucinations. Madness and philosophy proceed and converge toward a single vanishing point.\u003c\/p\u003ePreface to the English Edition xv \u003cbr\u003ePreface xix \u003cbr\u003eIntroduction: Philosophy and Madness 1 \u003cbr\u003eI Cogitating Your Head Off\u003cbr\u003e2 Inlooks and Outlooks 69\u003cbr\u003e3 Outside Time 87\u003cbr\u003e4 Inside Space 121\u003cbr\u003eII Via Mystica Psychotica \u003cbr\u003e5 Detachment 173\u003cbr\u003e6 Demagination 195\u003cbr\u003e7 Delanguization 213\u003cbr\u003e8 Dethinking 233\u003cbr\u003eIII Light Mists\u003cbr\u003e9 Pyramids of Light 283\u003cbr\u003e10 White Fullness 301\u003cbr\u003e11 The Infinity Trap 331\u003cbr\u003e12 Absolutely Nothing 389\u003cbr\u003eIV Crystal Fever 463\u003cbr\u003e13 Paradoxes 467\u003cbr\u003e14 Deliverance and Doom in Madness and Therapy 521\u003cbr\u003e15 The Mad Plan in Story and System 577\u003cbr\u003e16 Typology of Plans and Psychoplanatics 605\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments 661\u003cbr\u003eNotes 663\u003cbr\u003eReferences 705\u003cbr\u003eIndex 723“Experiences: what pressures do they, can they, or should they yield to? What kinds of sense can we extract from them? This remarkable book is full of bursts of interpretation that unfold if we detach experience from narratives that mores, norms, or reasonable expectations would impose. In vivid prose, Kusters traces continuities between detachments of “madness” and philosophy.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Susanna Siegel, Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University; author of \u003ci\u003eThe Contents of Visual Experience\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Rationality of Perception\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A book about everything—whose center cannot hold, yet does. Kusters’s book explores both the philosophical meanings of madness and the madness of philosophy; its widening gyre brings much of existence into question, but into focus as well. A beautiful book: unique, generous, and profound, written with precision and fearless ambition. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Louis Sass, author of \u003ci\u003eMadness and Modernism \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Paradoxes of Delusion\u003c\/i\u003e and Distinguished Professor of Clinical Psychology, Rutgers University\u003c\/b\u003eWouter Kusters is a Dutch philosopher and linguist. He is the author of \u003ci\u003ePure Madness\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003ci\u003eA Philosophy of Madness\u003c\/i\u003e was awarded the Dutch Socrates Award in 2015 for best philosophy book in the Dutch language.How can we   describe madness and distinguish it from nonmadness, or “normality”? How can   we extract something from the stream of life, the ocean of experience, that   we might call madness? Psychiatry uses the term “psychosis” for madness,   which is described as follows by Johan Lezy in his detailed survey Psychose:   verschijning, beleving, structuur (Psychosis: Appearance, Experience,   Structure, 2007, 11): “Roughly speaking, ‘psychosis’ is what is popularly   known as ‘insanity’: a condition in which the person loses himself in   delusions, hallucinations, and incoherent thoughts.” To define exactly what   these terms mean—loss of self, delusions, hallucinations, and incoherent   thoughts—is what this book is all about. But Lezy’s description will suffice   as a jumping-off point.\u003cbr\u003e Anyone who has ever had an experience of “paranormal” reality will not   always regard it as a “psychosis” but may look back on it as a time of   confusion, a revelation, a spiritual journey, an illness, or a crazy period.   What madness is, or what it might be, will be dealt with in the rest of this   book. At this point I would like to show, by way of a few examples, that   madness is different from normal, everyday existence—at least on the surface.   To speak from my own experience, I have twice undergone uninterrupted   periods, approximately two months each, in which I was “mad” and was   diagnosed as “psychotic” by psychiatrists. Both periods are sharply etched in   my memory; they differ from all the other periods in my life and, for this reason,   are remarkably similar to each other, but they are separated by two decades.   \u003cbr\u003e I can easily point to a large number of occurrences, thoughts, perceptions,   interpretations, and “lifestyles” that I experienced, which were decidedly   different from those that happen in normal life. For example, I noticed that   everyone over forty immediately understood all the languages of the world,   which meant there were no real linguistic differences. I experienced and was   convinced that there was no gulf between thinking and being. I feared that it   was my turn to be crucified. I realized that I was telepathic. I understood   that the internet had been invented by my father and my uncle and that I was   being observed via spyware by a secret alliance (or conspiracy) of wise old   men, all for the greater good. I discovered that the earth was flat and that   flying was an illusion, the work of a widespread conspiracy. I was certain   that God existed, and nothing but God. \u003cbr\u003e Such strange experiences and thoughts form a seemingly incoherent skin of   madness around a deeper, essential “spiritual change”—if not a cosmic change.   This book discloses that other world, behind the smoke screens of what is so   often dismissed as confusion, psychic disorder, and illness. \u003cbr\u003e In my experience it is easy to make a first rough distinction between   normality and madness without resorting to additional theory. But this book   deals with my experience only insofar as it rises above the particular and   reaches a general conceptual plane. To draw this work out of the   autobiographical egosphere and move it to a more general level, further   “objectification” is needed. In this light, my experience begins to bear a   striking resemblance to those self-described by many others labeled   “psychotic,” of which I will make extensive use. The collected works of   Artaud, Wisdom, Madness and Folly by Custance, Uhren und Meere by Harald   Kaas, and Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken by Schreber are so rich and   expressive that we will meet them again and again throughout the book. \u003cbr\u003e In addition to agreement over the concept of psychosis—among both madmen   and psychiatrists—there are also areas of overlap, “family resemblances,”   with diagnostic concepts such as schizophrenia and borderline syndrome.   Psychosis itself can be subdivided into many different types, such as manic,   depressive, and schizophrenic psychosis; drug-induced psychosis and psychosis   brought on by trauma; chronic, acute, short-term, and mass psychosis;   catatonic and paranoid psychosis, psychoses not otherwise specified, and so   forth. As a rule I will speak of “psychosis” or “madness” unless otherwise   specified (but see the reading guidelines below for a practical grasp of   these terms). \u003cbr\u003e Because the term “psychosis” is applied to so many different cases, my   assertions will always be open to possible criticism along the lines of “this   is not valid with regard to this or that kind of psychosis or psychotic   person.” So be it. It is not my purpose to improve psychiatric   classifications by adducing empirical experiential facts. My reason for using   the terms “madness” and “psychosis” is precisely to circumvent   medical-psychiatric classifications and, in so doing, to clear the way for   the admission of madness to a domain of philosophy, culture, and   spirituality. As soon as we have arrived there (in part III), we will make   other “diagnoses” of an entirely new and different order, based on insights   from philosophy and mysticism. \u003cbr\u003e To what extent my analysis of madness corresponds with the lives of “real   patients” will be reflected in the extent to which they feel addressed by my   descriptions. At the outset, my focus and role model will be the acute   psychotic patient. As we slowly manage to extricate the madman from the grip   of psychiatry (as an attitude of mind), we will find that more and more   experiences, thoughts, and pursuits in “normal” life rest on a substratum of   madness. This will considerably expand the focus of what madness is. The fire   of madness will be found smoldering beneath the experiences and activities of   a whole range of human types: philosophers, mystics, poets, shamans,   absurdists, magical realists, and many others. \u003cbr\u003e In my book on psychoses, Pure Madness (2004), I wrote, “Because of the time   constraints imposed by the essay contest, many ideas could only be dealt with   briefly, indirectly, or cursorily. That is why this book is no more than an   essay, literally a trial run. I hope to explore my ideas in greater depth in   the coming years.” \u003cbr\u003e This exploration is fulfilled in the book that lies before you: A   Philosophy of Madness. This book has also been immeasurably enriched and   deepened by an unsolicited shipment of fresh new “data.” I wrote Pure Madness   seventeen years after my first psychosis, so I was basing it on old, somewhat   crumbling memories. But for this new book, I had the opportunity to collect   new memories, owing to another psychotic episode I had in the summer of 2007,   twenty years after the first. It was a personal disaster, but for the writing   of this book it was a blessing. Like it or not, I was able to “test” and   modify my ideas in Pure Madness under actual psychotic conditions. So my   decision to “explore my ideas in greater depth” after Pure Madness was more than   theoretical. (I also graduated cum laude with a master’s degree in philosophy   from Utrecht University). It had another practical side as well: I was   committed to a psychiatric institution literally a stone’s throw from the   building that housed the philosophy department. \u003cbr\u003e A Philosophy of Madness is not only an opportunity to delve more deeply   into existing material but contains significant additions: this book covers   more of the gray zone between madness, mysticism, and spirituality (in parts   II and III). During my participatory fieldwork in the isolation cell and the   closed ward in 2007, my experiences extended far beyond the   linguistic-semiotic analysis of Pure Madness, as the text and spirit of that   work were still characterized by a basic trust in language. Although I   demonstrated there how signs dissolve and disappear during psychosis, I still   believed that language would be capable of articulating and registering its   own disappearance. \u003cbr\u003e In 2007 I was much more aware than in 1987 of the experience of breaking   through the boundaries of language—and thereby the boundaries of thought—and   reaching a new domain of madness that bears a strong affinity with religious   and mystical experiences and is light years away from the psychiatric   assessment or the autobiographical narratives about “recovery,”   “self-management,” “acceptance,” and so on. In later parts of this book, I   will make use of a great deal of data from autobiographies and writings that   bring up notions such as ineffability, infinity, ecstasy and anxiety,   revelations, messianism, and prophecies of doom. In that zone, the language   of “data”—the expression of madness—converges with the language of reflection   and of philosophy.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302890623205,"sku":"NP9780262044288","price":39.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262044288.jpg?v=1767720700","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/a-philosophy-of-madness-isbn-9780262044288","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}