In recent decades ideological battles have raged over how the history ofpsychiatry should be interpreted. Should the emergence of psychiatry in thelate 18th century be seen as the triumph of the Enlightenment, ushering in arational approach to mental illness and overturning the primitive and oftenbarbaric ideas of previous eras? Or should the rise of psychiatry be seen ina more sinister light? Does it represent the extension of the state into thelives of its citizens, controlling and policing the disaffected anddiscontented? Are psychiatrists benign humanitarians or agents ofoppression? Should the historical narrative be one of progress, aspsychiatry steadily extends its knowledge of mental illness and developsmore and more effective therapy? Or is the reverse true: has the advent ofpsychiatry been a calamity for the mad?