Monasteries and Madhouses: On the Care and Confinement of the Insane in Early Modern and Contemporary East Asian Buddhism

This essay explores the intersections between Buddhism/Buddhist institutions and madness/mental institutions. It begins with a general discussion of the place of madness within the Buddhist tradition by tracking references to madness in a variety of sources. Next, the essay discusses the intriguing history of the institutional connections between Buddhist monasteries and mental institutions in early modern and contemporary Taiwan, China, and Japan. I introduce case studies of sites where modern mental hospitals grew up within the precincts of or adjacent to Buddhist monasteries. What, I ask, is the historical relationship between the older Buddhist monasteries and the new mental hospitals? Have there been institutional connections between the monasteries and the hospitals throughout history? In addressing these questions, we encounter the history of the role played by Buddhist monasteries in the therapy of those beset with mental illnesses. Due to modern changes in the care for the mentally ill—including a move toward mandatory hospitalization—the earlier history of the connections between the Buddhist monasteries and those afflicted with mental illness became hidden.