Afterword: Relocating Madness

Abstract

This is a book about madness, space and performance. In it we have paused over these three concepts and their interrelations in order to try to better understand the cultural politics and meanings of madness. The diverse, even clashing, voices in the collection evidence how far this remains fiercely contested terrain. All our authors would claim, in distinct ways through their academic, professional, clinical or crea tive practices, to be engaged with questions of madness, whether they employ this term or prefer another such as psychosis, mental illness, psychological distress, alterity and so on. As this volume makes lumi nous, their conceptualisation of such experiences differs significantly. This raises the question of precisely what we speak of when we talk of ‘madness’ today. While the book makes no claim to offer the last word in this conversation, it hopes to have sustained and developed timely questions about power, politics, minds and voices. Moreover, it hopes to have prompted further reflections about how far madness might be understood as a state of being, a set of actions or behaviours, an ordinary experience, a myth, a protest, a disease, a gift. Although each author could offer their own conclusion to the provocative question, what is madness? — it remains for the reader to consider her own footing within this politicised landscape. We hope the eclecticism of the voices herein provides useful food for thought.