Madness in the context of Foucault and its reflections to painting

The purpose of the preparation of this thesis is to examine the concepts of madness/crazy in the context of Michel Foucault and to examine the reflections of madness on the art of painting. In his History of Madness, Foucault presented an archaeological analysis of western society's approach to the insane. Foucault, who brings a historical questioning to madness through the opposition of reason and unreason, discussed what madness is and who the madman is. Madness, which came under the domination of the mind with the enlightenment, has preserved its status of being the other. Within the limits of reason, the madness placed at the center of error is muted. Despite this reality in which madness is mute and doomed to silence, art has preserved and nurtured madness. Madness has been the answer to an explosion in the consciousness of art and artists. Art and artists who violated the limits of reason embraced madness and contained madness in their creative actions. This has been the subject of Foucault's emphasis. Madness and opposition to reason, which is the subject of this thesis, has been examined in the context of Foucault. The social, medical, and artistic reality of insanity has been researched, and the reflections of insanity, especially in painting, have been studied. In this context, the archaeological inquiry presented by Foucault to madness was taken as a basis, and the concept of madness was examined in the same direction in the history of painting. Keywords: Foucault, Madness, Painting, Art