If a reader wanted to browse my book, a number of strategies suggest themselves. The introductory chapter is quite brief, but sets out the range of topics I plan to write about, and makes plain that I don’t romanticize mental illness, nor treat it as some sort of social construction. Two other possibilities suggest themselves: either to browse the hundred and forty and more illustrations, which given a vivid sense of the issues the book engages with; or to choose a particular topic that is of interest, and see what I have to say about it: the place of madness in opera or the movies, for instance; or its multifarious relationships with religious ideas; or how Chinese or Islamic culture approached the subject many centuries ago.

Dipping into the pages on any of these subjects – easy to do either through the table of contents or the index, will quickly give a would-be reader of the nature of my approach and the arguments I develop.Mental illness is something that touches all of us, directly or indirectly. It is something still poorly understood, and for which our treatments are mostly palliative at best. I hope my book can contribute to a deeper understanding of the myriad ways in which societies have sought to make sense of and cope with mental illness, of the challenges it represents, and the stigma that attaches to those who suffer from it, adding to and augmenting their misery. But I also think readers will find some more positive stories and meanings, not least in the great works of art and literature that find in madness their inspiration and their raison d’être.