A different take on the Assylum

While reading Foucault’s Le Pouvoir Psychiatrique series of lectures I came across a recently published article of Oliver Sacks on the forgotten virtues of the asylum . Unfortunately Sacks’ article is only available on-line to subscribers.

Sacks seem to follow Foucault’s description quite closely, but where Foucault’s tone is sinister, Sacks provides a more nuanced and broader picture of the realities of classical psychiatric hospitals.

In any case, an interesting contrast.