Nima Bassiri, "Madness and Enterprise: Psychiatry, Economic Reason, and the Emergence of Pathological Value" (U Chicago Press, 2024)
Mar 12, 2025
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Nima Bassiri, an Assistant Professor of Literature at Duke University and co-director of the Institute for Critical Theory, dives into the provocative relationship between mental illness and economic productivity. He discusses how historically, psychiatry intertwined with capitalist values, measuring mental health against economic utility. The conversation explores concepts like pathological value, the 'mad genius' and how perceptions of madness have shaped societal norms, revealing the complexities of mental health in a capitalist context.
The podcast reveals how psychiatric assessments historically linked mental illness severity to economic productivity, illustrating the intertwining of pathology and financial value.
It discusses the perspective that psychiatry, informed by societal norms, functions as a social theory that reflects broader social values rather than a purely medical field.
The concept of 'pathological value' highlights how societal acceptance of madness varies based on economic contributions, revealing capitalism’s influence on mental health perceptions.
Deep dives
Interdisciplinary Expertise
The speaker emphasizes the integration of various fields in the understanding of human behavior, particularly focusing on the intersection of literature, psychiatry, and economics. The discussion highlights how these disciplines have emerged from the human sciences, allowing for a deeper exploration of the nature of madness and social norms. The speaker's background in critical theory, post-structuralism, and the history of science underscores the need for an interdisciplinary approach to these complex topics. This interplay among fields allows for a broader understanding of how concepts like madness are shaped by societal and economic factors.
Madness as Social Theory
The idea that psychiatry can be viewed as a form of social theory rather than a purely medical field is explored, suggesting that mental health categorization is deeply rooted in societal norms. The speaker argues that understanding deviations from these norms helps to clarify the nature of social order and mental health. This perspective shifts the focus from merely treating mental illness to examining the implications of societal expectations and how individuals respond to them. The discussions highlight how psychiatric diagnoses often reflect broader societal values and the pressures individuals face to conform.
Economic Reasoning in Psychiatry
The podcast delves into the methodology of how psychiatric conditions have historically been evaluated through economic metrics, particularly in the 19th century. It discusses the emergence of categorizations that allowed psychiatrists to define insanity not purely on mental states, but also in relation to economic behaviors and decisions. This approach critiques the rigid boundaries established between mental health and economic productivity, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of the intertwining of economic rationale and psychiatric assessment. By framing behaviors in financially evaluative terms, psychiatry adapted to societal norms regarding productivity and success.
Pathological Value and Mental Health
The concept of 'pathological value' is introduced, which examines the implications of attributing economic worth to behaviors deemed irrational or mad. The speaker highlights how historically, certain forms of madness were tolerated or even embraced in economic contexts as innovative or entrepreneurial, while other forms led to stigma or rejection. This duality points to a broader societal acceptance of certain pathologies when they align with productivity and profitability. The discussions emphasize how capitalistic frameworks shape not just our understanding of mental health but also influence the experiences of individuals navigating these categories.
Contemporary Resonances
Lastly, the podcast draws connections between historical psychiatric practices and current trends in mental health discourse, particularly around the concept of trauma and productivity. It suggests that the assessment of mental health often still hinges on an individual's capacity to work, mirroring past interactions between economic viability and psychological wellbeing. This ongoing relationship indicates a deep-rooted cultural assumption that productivity equates to mental health, revealing a repetitive cycle of economic rationality governing societal views. As conversations around mental health evolve, the embedding of economic reasoning continues to influence perceptions and treatments of mental illness.
Uncovers a powerful relationship between pathology and money: beginning in the nineteenth century, the severity of mental illness was measured against a patient’s economic productivity.
Madness and Enterprise: Psychiatry, Economic Reason, and the Emergence of Pathological Value (U Chicago Press, 2024) reveals the economic norms embedded within psychiatric thinking about mental illness in the North Atlantic world. Over the course of the nineteenth century, various forms of madness were subjected to a style of psychiatric reasoning that was preoccupied with money. Psychiatrists across Western Europe and the United States attributed financial and even moral value to an array of pathological conditions, such that some mental disorders were seen as financial assets and others as economic liabilities. By turning to economic conduct and asking whether potential patients appeared capable of managing their financial affairs or even generating wealth, psychiatrists could often bypass diagnostic uncertainties about a person’s mental state.
Through an exploration of the intertwined histories of psychiatry and economic thought, Nima Bassiri shows how this relationship transformed the very idea of value in the modern North Atlantic, as the most common forms of social valuation—moral value, medical value, and economic value—were rendered equivalent and interchangeable. If what was good and what was healthy were increasingly conflated with what was remunerative (and vice versa), then a conceptual space opened through which madness itself could be converted into an economic form and subsequently redeemed—and even revered.
Nima Bassiri is assistant professor of literature at Duke University, where he is also the codirector of the Institute for Critical Theory.
Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter.
