Queen Mary and Westfield College London University PhD Thesis ...

through the transmission of Lockean cognitive 'psychology'. Emphasising the power of objects
to distort sensory impressions by their imprint, and thus cause insanity, vice verstz, the new
philosophy encouraged enlightenment faith in the ability to mould perceptions, and informed an
enthusiasm for viewing the insane as object lessons. Publicists, like Addison and Steele, recog-
nised with new poignancy the effects of 'the actual View and Survey of outward Objects', and
sought to make every one of their readers (in the manner of visitors to Bethlem) a spectator82.
While Bedlamites were themselves increasingly seen as crazed through 'dwelling too long upon
an Object'83 , the contemplation of the mad was, according to the same theory, advocated as a
salutary exercise, in applying a short sharp shock to a wayward mind. Thus, a correspondent to
The Guardian, in 1713, described having 'rambled about the galleries at I3edlam...foi an hour'
and having 'thoroughly reflected' on what he 'beheld'—'until I have startled myself out of my
present ill course'84 . Cibber's figures of 'Melancholy and Raving Madness', displayed on top of
the gateway of new Bethlem, from 1676, were evidently carved with the same object in mind,
as warnings, as well as advertisements, of the madness that lurked within. Seventeenth century
philosophy had stressed 'sight' as the door to perception and understanding, and the pecu-
liarly forceful operation of 'an outward object' on the mind or imagination, if 'distinct...from
any other'85 . Moreover, philosophers looked to the mechanics of sensory impressions to un-
derline the need for comparison (in order to maintain a healthy perspective) and to support
the demonstrability of moral ideas86 . As suh theories percolated through the Enlightenment,
'seeing the insane'87 became an increasingly acute and instructive experience for the educated
elite. Appreciative of the attraction and potency of images that were 'strange' or 'uncommon',
82 Addison not only, quite consciously, chose the title Specielor for his magazine for this reason, but constantly
reiterated his concern 'that his Reader become, a kind of Spectator, and feels in himself all the variety of Passions,
which are correspondent to the several Parts of the Relation', and admired the Roman writer,, such se Livy, who
had managed to achieve this effect. See e.g. Specfaor, No.420, 2 July 1712, 574.
83 See e.g. Dennis, 'Remarks on King Arthur' (1696), in Cr,fical Works (ed.) Hooker, I, 109, quoted in
Spechzor, No.412,23 June 1712, 541, ref. 2; & Specto.ior& The TsHer(ed.) Donald F. Bond (Oxford, Clarendon,.
1987) 3 vols ptzssin; re. suffering from a particular 'Crack' (or flaw of the brain) and being mad on one subject
(anticipating the nineteenth century diagnostic category 'monomania').
84 Gaardien, No 79, 11 June 1713.
85 See John Locke, An Essay on Hamsn Understanding, revised edn. John W. Yolton (London, S. M. Dent,
1965), Vol. 1, Book 1, Chap. xxix, 306-14.
86 On the demonstrahility of moral ideas, see ,b,i, chap.iii, 339'40; on the need to compare, see chap xi, 127-8.
87 Sander L. Oilman, Seeing the Jn,sne (New York, Brunner, Mazel, 1982).
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