Aim : How can we reflect on the definition of madness given to us in the novel?

1. Aim: How can we reflect on the definition of madness given to us in the novel? Do Now: Is there a “norm” from the past that is taboo today? Can you think of something we do or think today that previously was considered abnormal?

2. Institutionalized • “...modern man no longer communicates with the madman [...] There is no common language: or rather, it no longer exists; the constitution of madness as mental illness, at the end of the eighteenth century, bears witness to a rupture in a dialogue, gives the separation as already enacted, and expels from the memory all those imperfect words, of no fixed syntax, spoken falteringly, in which the exchange between madness and reason was carried out. The language of psychiatry, which is a monologue by reason about madness, could only have come into existence in such a silence.: • Foucault, Preface to the 1961 edition of History of Madness.

3. The Construction of Madness • Even in our work with “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the issue of madness and whether or not one is truly insane comes into question when we look at the role of society and the perception of those around us. • Let’s take the followingstatement: Society formsitsowndefinition of madness. • If the wardisitsown mini-society, a microcosm of the larger society, whatdefiniton of madness has itconstructed?

4. On Burrough’s Work by Allen Ginsberg • Which line of Ginsberg’s poem contains its thesis? • What statement in Ginsberg making of the depiction of madness and imprisonment? • Ginsberg was referring to his friend, William Burrough’s, writing. However, how does this poem connect to the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? • Is it fair to suggest that the ward is really a prison? Are they all? The method must be purest meat         and no symbolic dressing, actual visions & actual prisons         as seen then and now. Prisons and visions presented         with rare descriptions corresponding exactly to those         of Alcatraz and Rose. A naked lunch is natural to us,         we eat reality sandwiches. But allegories are so much lettuce.         Don't hide the madness. In what way is this poem ironic?