Illness, Disorder, and Madness

Chapter 2 considers the question of “mental illness” more specifically, looking to both modern accounts and early Chinese accounts of mind and body, of what illness is in a broader medical sense, and mental illness in particular as a form of illness. This chapter offers a view of illness in general in early China, linking it to development of the person, and considers mental illness in terms of qi氣‎ (vital essence), mind, and community based on the conception of person of the first chapter. This chapter considers here also how illness affects agency—both physical and mental.