This essay examines two recently published collections of seminars, Madness and the Social Link, and The Birth of a Political Self. The seminars were run by Jean-Max Gaudillière at L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales in France, and transcribed by his wife, psychoanalyst Françoise Davoine. The two collections elucidate their pioneering approach to psychoanalysis of psychoses and trauma. They firmly place madness within the social and political circumstances of historical events traced through generations, and argue for the role of psychoanalysis in uncovering the “counter-history” of the official social narratives.