Archeology of Madness

This book is an introduction to Foucault's "Madness and Civilization". "Madness and Civilization" is a shortened version of Foucault's doctoral thesis, which benefited from the influence of Nietzsche's theory of tragedy. Just as Nietzsche criticized reason's denial of tragic experience, Foucault pointed out that modern civilization negates the experience of madness. The experience of madness once shined in the tragic works of the Renaissance and can even be traced back to the spirit of Dionysus in Greek tragedy. . However, Foucault’s thinking on madness and tragedy is different from Nietzsche’s: Nietzsche embodies the dimension of tragic metaphysics, while Foucault, as a historian, has insight into modern civilization’s discourse construction and rejection mechanism of “madness” from the perspective of “knowledge-power”. . This introduction also briefly introduces Foucault's life and the impact of his ideas on academic circles.