The history of madness and other short stories

Back at uni, Foucault’s ‘History of Madness’ was quite possibly the first book that made such a strong impression on me. So here’s my tribute to Michel Foucault, his book ‘History of Madness’ and one of the paintings described in his book ‘Das Narrenschiff’ by Hieronymous Bosch. All pictures taken in Paris (a series of fortunate events… or I love random associations!)

“A new object made its appearance in the imaginary landscape of the
Renaissance, and it was not long before it occupied a privileged place
there; this was the Ship of Fools, a strange drunken boat that wound its
way down the wide, slow-moving rivers of the Rhineland and round the
canals of Flanders.

This Narrenschiff was clearly a literary invention, and was probably borrowed
from the ancient cycle of Argonauts that had recently been given a new lease
of life among mythological themes, and in the states of Burgundy at least now had
an institutional function. Such ships were a literary commonplace, with
a crew of imaginary heroes, moral models or carefully defined social types
set out on a great symbolic voyage that brought them, if not fortune,
at the very least, the figure of their destiny or of their truth.

Naturally, Bosch’s painting belongs to this same oneiric flotilla.”

From M. Foucault’s ‘History of Madness’