Ten Follies

Ten Follies: A Journey Around the World in Ten Forms of Madness focuses on a critical question in the history of psychiatry: to what extent does psychopathology describe phenomena that exist before or beyond their description? Marco Innamorati probes the view that any description of a psychopathological phenomenon is, to a significant extent, the result of a construction by the subject describing it or a co-construction made by the clinician and the patientâ"a perspective also known as the âconstructivistâ approach.

Starting from the work of the philosopher and historian of science Ian Hacking, who proposed the concept of âtransient mental illnessâ, i.e., an âillness that appears at a given time, in a given place, and then disappearsâ (Hacking, 1998), Innamorati explores some forms of madness that seem to arise in a particular environment and specific historical circumstances, developing through a kind of epidemic and then disappearing almost definitively. The author evaluates strengths and weaknesses of the âconstructivistâ approach, by juxtaposing evolving hermeneutical questions to cultural factors. From hysteria to demonic possession, from the âmad travellersâ to arctic shamanism, until the recent mushrooming of the hikikomori phenomenon,

Ten Follies is an unconventional âjourney around the world in ten forms of madnessâ which takes the reader through astonishing stories of suffering and healing. Against the trend of mapping a single globalised discourse of âfollyâ, this book embraces a kind of philosophical perspectivism (âten folliesâ) which echoes the contemporary cultural transformation of the many narratives of âmadnessâ.