Beginning with a misguided attempt to decode Daniel Paul Schreber’s Memoirs via computational analysis, this introduction draws attention to a central ethical concern articulated within Mad Studies literature (and beyond) concerning acts of epistemic violence performed on written narratives of madness. I introduce Lacanian theory as a means to tackle this conundrum by examining Lacan’s thought in respect of paranoia, the split nature of knowledge (connaissance/savoir) as well as his earlier notion of ‘schizographie’. In essence, this introduction begins to tease out a philosophical argument demonstrating how madness and knowledge are not distinct, mutually incompatible entities, but in fact circle around the same issues at the heart of subject formation, epistemology and ontology.