Download or read book Madness and Civilization written by Michel Foucault and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2013-01-30 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michel Foucault examines the archeology of madness in the West from 1500 to 1800 - from the late Middle Ages, when insanity was still considered part of everyday life and fools and lunatics walked the streets freely, to the time when such people began to be considered a threat, asylums were first built, and walls were erected between the "insane" and the rest of humanity.