The territory for my project is Mental Health while the object is the treatment and models of explanation for mental illness. The concepts I will be using can be defined as Madness, Freedom and the Superego. Over the past few decades there has occurred an important transformation in the type of care offered to the mentally afflicted. The introduction of community based care in place of institutionalisation has generated a debate surrounding the danger that mentally ill patients present. I will identify the pros and cons of such schemes drawing on statistical data and public attitudes. Unfortunately, there generally exists a negative stigma towards the mentally ill which in turn affects the plausibility of their presence in the community. Would you object to living next door to a schizophrenic? I have further incorporated the transition from a natural scientific explanation of mental illness to the triumph of social psychology. The Philosophy. I have utilized the work of Michel Foucault to identify a historical change in the concept of madness and employed his ideas relating to the power of knowledge and experience. Surrounding the treatment dichotomy, I have identified a contrast between the ethical views of Alasdair MacIntyre and the moral and political theory of Thomas Hobbes. I will further look at the work of Sigmund Freud in order to raise the question; to what extent does society exercise its Super-ego?