BPS Core Textbooks Series

Developed in collaboration with the British Psychological Society

Chapter 21 – Mad Travellers: The Historical Ontology of Psychological Categories

Chapter Summary

This chapter investigates the idea that psychological categories, such as hysteria, intelligence, and personality, are not timeless features of human nature but historically contingent constructs. Drawing on Ian Hacking’s concept of ‘historical ontology’, it introduces the idea of human kinds as ‘moving targets’: they emerge, shift, and sometimes disappear in response to specific social, scientific, and institutional conditions. Through the metaphor of the ‘ecological niche’, the chapter examines how certain psychological categories became thinkable, diagnosable, and real in particular moments, only to fade when the historical conditions change. It compares abandoned categories such as fugue, neurasthenia, and drapetomania with enduring ones such as emotion, motivation, and intelligence, whose meanings have been radically redefined over time. In doing so, it interrogates how ways of being and forms of suffering are brought into existence through classification systems, diagnostic practices, and expert discourse. The chapter also addresses epistemological, ontological, and power-related issues, arguing that psychological categories are produced through historically situated knowledge practices, not simply discovered. By the end, students are encouraged to rethink the stability of the categories they study, recognising that psychology’s objects of knowledge are co-produced by culture, history, the human sciences, and the people who live through them.

Chapter 21 – Quiz

  • Chapter 21 – Flashcards

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  • Chapter 21 – Key Readings

    Brinkmann, S. (2005). Human kinds and looping effects in psychology. Theory & Psychology, 15(6), 769–791. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354305059332 

    Danziger, K. (1997). Naming the mind: How psychology found its language. Sage. 

    Hacking, I. (1992). Multiple personality disorder and its hosts. History of the Human Sciences, 5(2), 3-31. https://doi.org/10.1177/095269519200500202 

    Hacking, I. (2002). Historical ontology. Harvard University Press. 

    Hacking, I. (2002). Mad travelers: Reflections on the reality of transient mental illnesses. Harvard University Press. 

    Harper, D. J. (1994). Histories of suspicion in a time of conspiracy: a reflection on Aubrey Lewis’s history of paranoia. History of the Human Sciences, 7(3), 89-109. https://doi.org/10.1177/095269519400700304 

    Kimball, M. M. (2000). From “Anna O.” to Bertha Pappenheim: Transforming private pain into public action. History of Psychology, 3(1), 20–43. https://doi.org/10.1037/1093-4510.3.1.20 

    Knight, I. F. (1984), Freud’s “project”: A theory for Studies on Hysteria. Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences, 20(4), 340-358. https://doi.org/10.1002/1520-6696(198410)20:4<340::AID-JHBS2300200404>3.0.CO;2-L 

    Low, K. G. (1997). Mad, but not Crazy. Theory & Psychology, 7(2), 282-284. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959354397072014 

    Rae, G. (2025). From reason to madness and back: Critiquing reason through the Derrida–Foucault debate. History of the Human Sciences, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951251337677 

    Sass, L. A. (1994). Civilized madness: schizophrenia, self-consciousness and the modern mind. History of the Human Sciences, 7(2), 83-120. https://doi.org/10.1177/095269519400700206 

    Smith, R. (2005). The history of psychological categories. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 36(1), 55–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2004.12.006 

  • Chapter 21 – Reflective Questions

    1. What does the concept of ‘historical ontology’ reveal about the way psychological categories are created and maintained? 
    2. Why did ‘fugue’ as a psychological category appear and then vanish from psychiatric discourse? 
    3. How does Ian Hacking’s ‘looping effect’ challenge our understanding of diagnosis and classification in psychology? 
    4. In what ways do power dynamics influence which psychological categories become legitimate or dominant? 
    5. How have categories such as ‘emotion’ or ‘intelligence’ changed over time, and what does this suggest about their ontological status?

  • Chapter 21 – Weblinks

    BBC In our Time: Hysteria (Educational Resource)

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004y27w

    This 45-minute episode of the BBC In Our Time radio show provides an interesting and comprehensive look at the history of hysteria as a diagnosis, and provides students with the ability to engage with the idea of shifting meanings in psychological categorisation.

    Making up People – Ian Hacking

    https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v28/n16/ian-hacking/making-up-people

    This article gives an academic, but easily digestible explanation of the looping effect, and discusses historical ontology, giving an excellent way of increasing conceptual understanding for students.

    Foucault: Madness & Civilization (History of Madness) (YouTube video)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q1uSC1skkY

    This 25-minute YouTube video gives a detailed overview of Foucault’s ‘History of Madness’, and discusses some of the key theories spawned by this original piece of work. This is useful for students who want to connect with broader philosophical frameworks for psychological categorisation.

    Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy – Michel Foucault (Educational Resource)

    https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/foucault

     This webpage gives clear and detailed information about the life and work of Michel Foucault, his contributions to psychology and philosophy, and extensive resources for further reading.

    “Improving the nation’s stock for ‘Great and Greater Britain’: Eugenics in the 1920s” –National Archives (Educational Resource)

    https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20speople-improving-the-nations-stock-for-great-and-greater-britain-eugenics-in-the-1920s

    This webpage provides an interesting insight into the practical aspects of the eugenics practises in Great Britain in the 1920s, including quotations from important figures like Galton and figures for students to use to expand their understanding of this concept.

    The Case Of Billy Milligan: The Man With 24 Different Personalities (YouTube Video)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJRz3hZDWNA

    This 12-minute YouTube video gives an overview of the concept of split personalities, and goes into his life and experience with the disorder in accessible levels of detail for students looking to expand their contemporary understanding of these concepts.