Insane (novel)

Insane is a 1983 novel by the German writer Rainald Goetz.

Plot

Insane is about mental health and psychiatric institutions. It is divided into three parts: "Away", which is about the treatment of mental illness from a variety of perspectives, "Inside", which follows the experiences in a psychiatric hospital of a young doctor named Raspe, and "Order", which follows Raspe's personal struggles after he stops working in psychiatry.

Publication

Published by Suhrkamp Verlag in 1983, Insane was Goetz' debut novel. It received significant attention in West Germany upon publication, both because of its content and because Goetz, during a public reading from the book ahead of its release, cut his forehead with a razor and let his blood drip onto the manuscript. The stunt made Der Spiegel refuse to review the book. Other periodicals praised Goetz as a new star of pop literature. Insane was published in English translation by Adrian Nathan West in 2017.