Patterns
of Madness in the Eighteenth Century
(A Reader)
Allan Ingram
1998 AD
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Introduction:
Patterns of Madness in the Eighteenth Century, A Reader, Allan Ingram, 1998 AD
"The eighteenth century was in two minds about madness, fearful of its power, its suddenness, its inaccessibility, yet obsessed with its manifestations, its proximity, its apparently mischievous aping of sane behaviour, of sane patterns of thought. The massively impressive walls of Bethlem Hospital in Moorfields, London, signified the secure placement in the public mind of insanity in its various manifestations, just as Caius Gabriel Libber's giant statues of 'Melancholy Madness' and 'Raving Madness' that stood at the gates marked down sure patterns of diagnosis and representation. But Bethlem was also a spectacle, a place of entertainment. Its walls relented for the modest price of admission." (Patterns of Madness in the Eighteenth Century, A Reader, Allan Ingram, 1998 AD, p 2)
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