Asylum Quote by Antonin Artaud
““Insane asylums are deliberate and premeditated receptacles of black magic, and it is not only that doctors encourage magic with their untimely and hybrid therapies, it is that they practice it. If there had been no doctors there would never have been patients, no skeletons of the diseased dead to butcher and flay, for it is through doctors and not through patients that society began. Those who live, live off the dead. And it is likewise necessary that death live; and there is nothing like an insane asylum for calmly incubating death, and for keeping dead people in incubators.””
About This Quote
Source Essay: “The Theatre and Its Double” (1938) or similar manifesto
Artaud criticizes as as institutions that perpetuate death and suffering, arguing they exploit patients for societal benefit.
In simple terms: Asylums serve death, not healing, and doctors profit from them.
Key Takeaway
Question the ethics of institutions that harm under the guise of care.
Themes
medicine
institutional critique
death
power
ethics
Mood
critical
somber
Type
philosophical
inquisitive
When to use this quote
- mental health reform
- ethical medical practice
- advocacy for patient rights
- critical analysis of institutions
Key Concepts
nihilism
social control
medical exploitation
Questions to Reflect On
- Can any institution be wholly harmful?
- What reforms could transform such institutions?
A Different Perspective
The view is extreme and may ignore genuine therapeutic benefits.
