From ‘Bad’ to ‘Mad’: Labelling and Behaviour in Peter Shaffer’s Equus Carmen Méndez García Abstract: The process of ‘labelling’ (whereby labels are socially imposed on a given behaviour by a given person) is an extensive and recurrent one in our society, as proved by the labelling of behaviours and people even into the literary text. In our analysis, we will try to show how applying one of two most different labels (psychopathic or psychotic) greatly influences our understanding of the existence of ‘evil’ or moral responsibility in the deeds of a person. To such end, we will use Peter Shaffer’s play Equus (1973), which requires both the characters in the play and the spectators to decide whether Alan Strang’s terrible crime is a result of evil or of insane behaviour: whether he is ‘mad’ or simply ‘bad’. We will try to evince the current social and cultural confusion between madness and evil, and how processes of medicalization or criminalization affect our understanding of those around us and those living in the books we read. Key Words: Shaffer, Evil, Madness, Psychiatry, Theatre, Sociopathy, Psychopathy, Violence, Theatre, society. __________ When first staged, Equus (1973) by Peter Shaffer provoked heated reactions not only in literary and dramatic circles, but also in the psychiatric community that the play both presents and questions. Much of the interest, comments and controversies raised by the play are focused on the blurred frontiers it proposes between sanity and madness, between mad and evil behaviour. Considered to be an apology of violence by some, the spectator is never completely assured of what the reasons behind Alan Strang’s violent act are (if there are any). Also, the representation of violence is offered to the spectator directly, what produces a non-mediated cathartic and visceral reaction, which would be somehow diluted in a written, not staged, work. In the stage (which is, alternatively, a boxing room, an operating room, a court, and an altar), two opposite views are presented: to some, Alan is deeply disturbed and in need of a ‘cure’ (the view fostered by Alan’s psychiatrist, Martin Dysart and his colleague, Hesther Salomon). To others, his cruel act can only be explained by an evil personality (as argued by Harry Dalton, the stable owner, and the bench of lawyers judging the case). Shaffer himself, in the prologue to Equus, makes reference to the real-life incident that inspired the work, committed by “a highly disturbed young man” and lacking “any coherent explanation” 1 This article originally appeared in Ni Fhlainn, S., y W. A. Myers, eds. _The Wicked Heart: Studies in the Phenomena of Evil_, first published in 2006 by the Inter-Disciplinary Press.