The smoke and the flames

During the seventeenth century, there was a British doctor, Dr. Thomas Willis (1621-1675), who played an important role in the sciences of anatomy, nerves, and psychiatry. He authored several books of significance within their historical context. In a special edition of his complete works, references were made to "manic-depressive illness," where Willis used beautiful metaphorical images to compare depression to "smoke," and mania to "flame." In expressive rhetorical images, he also clarified some of the differences and similarities between mania, flame, depression, and smoke, saying: "And we remember that the minds of the depressed were black and obscure; they cast their darkness over the images of things, forming inside the light of the soul something like the ascent of shadows. But in the case of mania, the situation is the opposite. During it, spirits tremble within a constant glow. They are carried away by an irregular movement that continually destroys and annihilates. And without fever, their heat radiates." These references appeared in Michel Foucault's book "History of Madness," from which we drew inspiration for the title of this book.