What Are The Three Lessons From The Ship Of Fools Myth?

The myth of the Ship of Fools was first mentioned in the year 1486 at the beginning of the Renaissance. A man named Sebastian Brandt then wrote a long poem entitled Das Narrenschiff or Stultifera Navis. In this poem, he talks about a journey that 111 jesters take to a place called “Narrangania” or “Locagonia.”

Hieronymus Bosch, El Bosco, was more direct. He designed a painting that he called “The Ship of Fools”. In this painting he captures the pilgrimage of a group of men and women who are mentally ill.

They travel by sea to an unknown destination. That is the essence of the myth of the Ship of Fools. Those who disagree with collective reason must be thrown overboard. From that moment on they are doomed to a wandering existence without a land, without solid ground… just wandering endlessly.

In his book Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, Michel Foucault alludes to the myth of the Ship of Fools. He points out that it could really have happened.

There are old documents from the Middle Ages that mention ships carrying loads of “crazy”. According to these records, they were not allowed to dock in any port.

In essence, the Ship of Fools myth is the explanation of the concept of insanity, society’s response to insanity and the treatment that should be applied. In this regard, we can learn several things from this myth.

Lessons from the Myth of the Ship of Fools

1. Society does not tolerate insanity

The classical Greeks were the first to try to study what happened in the mind. There was ambiguity on this subject. Insanity was considered a demonic condition.

Hippocrates, however, attributed it to a disturbance of the balance in the body fluids. It had to be treated with an appropriate diet. Something similar happened in Rome.

During the Middle Ages, insanity was definitely thought to be something supernatural. They also spoke not of insanity but of possession. At that time, banishment and isolation were the normal treatments for the people suffering from mental disorders.

Society apparently does not tolerate anyone who is a little far from reason. These people are seen as threats. In this regard, Foucault points out that it is a threat to the establishment. That is also why it causes fear and leads to isolation.

There are also those who maintain that the myth of the Ship of Fools was first shown in Greece. It was a form of exclusion to protect the “common good”.

2. Atrocities against the so-called “crazy”

Unlike other patients, no one feels compassion for madmen. In fact, they are feared. Mental disorders are not contagious like leprosy or tuberculosis. Yet they evoke a deep aversion in others. Often atrocities resulted from this aversion.

The Ship of Fools myth is a representation of a bigoted and cruel way of approaching mental illness.

Seclusion, however, is only one of the “less radical” ways of dealing with insanity. There are other practices that are much more violent. In many cases, people with mental disorders have also been tortured.

In the Middle Ages, the “crazy” were burned, beaten and often treated like animals. People believed that there was a “stone of insanity” and that it was located in the brain.

In the Modern Age, the idea that insane people should be locked up became more popular. So the “crazy” were no longer sent on an errant journey as in the myth of the Ship of Fools.

3. The concept of insanity is unclear and inaccurate

Today, there is still no clear concept of insanity. During the Middle Ages and the Modern Age, anyone who deviated from the norm was called insane. These included people with cognitive abilities, rebellious people, prostitutes and almost anyone who walked outside the lines.

We are sure many will be surprised when they read this. You may think we are lucky to live in progressive times. However, the change is not really very noticeable. We live in a society that only accepts collective delusions.

Let’s give an example: the belief that a brand makes you superior. In some countries in the world, there are also certain people who believe that they are better than others because they wear clothes of a certain brand. We don’t consider that insanity, however. On the other hand, if a single individual does something different, he or she is considered insane.

Exclusion and cruelty still exist

Cruelty continues to haunt the mental illness. Sometimes that insensitivity arises in the family of precisely those people who walk outside the lines or are victims of hallucinations. To deal with the situation, people are still turning to exclusion. As in the myth of the Ship of Fools, many people with mental disorders are left to their own devices.

Sometimes we see them on the streets of many cities around the world. We also see them come and go through the corridors of mental institutions that rarely make an effort to help and encourage them.

Isolation, silence, and hypocrisy are the ways people deal with mental illness. We pretend they are a reality that can disappear if we sweep them under the rug.