The myth of the ship of fools began to be evoked in 1486, at the dawn of the Renaissance, when a man named Sebastian Brandt wrote a long poem called Arrenschiff or Stultifera navis, about a sea voyage made by 111 fools to a place called? Narragania? or “Locagonia”.
Jerome de Bosh, The Bosco, was more direct. He developed a painting entitled “The Boat of the Madmen”. It captures the pilgrimage of a group of men and women who do not go in their direction and who travel by boat to an unknown destination. This is the essence of the myth of barco. de fools. Those who do not coincide with the pattern of collective reason must be cast into the vastness of the sea, are destined for a wandering life, without homeland, without land, only an endless journey.
- “Madness is not found in nature.
- Doesn’t there be madness.
- Except in a society.
- Outside of the forms of sensitivity that isolate it and the forms of revulsion that exclude or capture it?”Michel Foucault?.
Michell Foucault, in his “History of Madness in the Classical Age”, alludes to the myth of the fools’ boat. Indicates that it can have real bases. There are documents of antiquity and the Middle Ages that mention ships whose cargo was many “crazy”. According to these accounts, they could not dock at any port. They had to be away from everyone.
The myth of the madman’s ship is the very essence of building the concept of madness. Also the company’s response to this and the treatment that should be applied automatically. There are several lessons in this story, and here are three.
In classical Greece, the first studies were conducted on what was going through the mind. There were several opinions about madness. It was then considered a demonic condition with Hippocrates, an imbalance of bodily fluids that must be treated with adequate nutrition. Something similar happened in Rome.
In the Middle Ages madness definitely entered the realm of the supernatural, we do not talk about madness as such, we talk about possession, at that time, as in earlier times, ostracism and segregation were a normal treatment for those suffering from mental disorders.
Apparently, the presence of someone who expresses a discourse outside the mainstream has always been intolerable to societies and is considered a threat. Foucault says he is a threat to the established order and therefore provokes fear and induced segregation. Some argue that the myth of the madman’s ship has its first expressions in Greece. Was it a form of exclusion to save the common good?.
Unlike other patients, we have no compassion for fools; basically, we’re afraid of them. If mental disorders are not initially “contagious,” such as leprosy or tuberculosis, they trigger deep rejection in others. This rejection has often led to brutality.
The madman’s boat myth is an intolerant and cruel way to deal with mental illness. However, segregation is just one of the ‘least radical’ to deal with madness. There have been and are other much more brutal practices, for example, people with mental disorders have been tortured on numerous occasions.
In the Middle Ages, he, were burned, beaten and often treated like animals. Do we think so, the stone of madness? And it was in the brain. Many have been mutilated to extract this element from evil. The modern era arose and the idea spread that fools should be confined, rather than sent on a wandering journey, as happened in the myth of the madman’s ship.
Even in the 21st century there is no definitive concept of what madness is, let alone existed in other times. In the Middle Ages and the modern era, anyone who deviated from the norm was described as crazy, this concept included cognitive decline, rebels, prostitutes and almost all those who did not respect the dominant parameters.
No doubt many will be surprised to read this. You may think that we, fortunately, at other times, however, today, change is not so visible. We live in a society that only accepts collective delusions, for example, the belief that a brand makes you superior, there are countries in the world where some people believe that they wear clothes of a certain brand more than others, this is not considered crazy. . On the other hand, a speech supported by a single individual seems unhealthy and is treated accordingly.
Cruelty continues to stalk mental illness. Sometimes this insensitivity is in the family of those who have delusional speeches or are victims of hallucinations, exclusion remains a way to remedy this situation, as in the myth of the madman’s boat, many people with mental disorders are abandoned and left to their fate. . They are sometimes seen on the streets of many cities around the world. Or back and forth in the corridors of psychiatric institutions, which rarely seek to support and empower them. What continues to prevail is segregation, secrecy and cover-up, as if it were a reality that disappeared when we covered it up.