Scenes of Madness

Plays portraying madness put it into the context of the events and circumstances afflicting the person involved, and provide models of madness to interest all those who meet madness in their professional work or their daily lives. The late Derek Russell Davis believed that playgoers can learn as much about madness at the theatre as from textbooks of psychiatry and that the understanding plays give of madness is all the more vivid because the events are presented dramatically, evoking feelings as well as intellectual curiosity.
In Scenes of Madness, Dr Davis discusses the account given by playwrights of the madness afflicting such diverse characters as Orestes, Oedipus, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Doctor Faustus, Peer Gynt, Oswald Alving, Ivanov and Blanche Dubois. The madness depicted in plays is put into the context of the crucial experiences in the person's history and current relationships and recovery at this point of reconciliation. Dr Davis argues that those working in the field of mental health can learn much from playwrights about the psychological processes in the developments of mental illness and recovery from it, as well as about effects of intervention.
Scenes of Madness demonstrates clearly the lessons to be learnt at the theatre, showing how plays can be a valuable new source of insight for professionals working with mental illness in a hospital or clinic setting.

Derek Russell Davis, a consultant psychiatrist and chartered psychologist, is Professor Emeritus of Mental Health at the University of Bristol.