Abstract

Translation by Matthew Vollgraff

An exhibition of works by mental patients at the Sainte-Anne Psychiatric Center has recently reignited interest in questions concerning art and madness—a thoroughly murky business—and, as a result, drawn attention to the social issues raised by mental disorders.

The explosion of clichés provoked by the very juxtaposition of the word “madness” with words like “art” and “genius” invariably evokes, in those who do not see these as subjects for picturesque exploitation, bursts of irritation, contempt, and exasperation, arising against a backdrop of sorrowful resignation. A few imprudent remarks by psychiatrists, or even painters or poets, resurface in high-society conversation or in press columns, digested by salon aesthetes and distinguished amateurs of medical literature or literary medicine in the sadly sclerotic form of the same sententious platitudes.