In
visiting a patient named “Lisa” at Geauga hospital, one is immediately struck
by her level of sedation. She is on suicide watch after an attempt to take her
own life in a road side motel room. The sedatives are meant to keep her
convulsions at bay. The assumption, upon speaking with hospital staff, is that
the bulk of her reckless behavior takes place amidst her manic phases of
euphoria. No music is permitted to be played around her as it arouses her and
causes the convulsions to return. While mental illness today is viewed as physiological: stemming from chemical
imbalances in the brain, Lisa rocks back and forth on her bed crying and
confesses to feeling cursed.
Over
the span of recorded time, many different mechanisms are devised to cope with
the mentally ill. Some African and Native American tribes elevate those who
experience visual and auditory hallucinations as well as convulsive fits to the
rank of Shaman. This is not the case in early modern Europe, where mental
illness and epilepsy are often thought to be caused by demonic possession. It
is solely in England that the etiology and care of the mentally ill stem from
medical means as early as the thirteenth century.
The
image of the strega/putana as it exists in Italian culture today, is a
carryover of the early modern image of the village witch. In Federico Fellini's
blatantly misogynist Amarcord, the strega/putana character is
reduced to nothing more than the village whore. She hyperventilates and
trembles, as if only satiated by boughts of sex. These convulsive states of
mania are indicative of many etiologies. In Medieval and early modern Europe,
convulsive fits are commonly attributed to demonic possession, even when
symptoms would seem to the modern eye to point more directly to such modern
diagnoses as epilepsy, bi-polar disorder, autism and schizophrenia.
Symptoms
relating to demonic possession in which victims feel themselves stolen away by
forces outside of themselves include strong convulsive gyrations, wild facial
expressions, feats of extraordinary strength and swelling of the throat as well
as abdominal distention. Periods of fasting and self-mutilation are also
reported. Midelfort points out that: “culturally specific psychosis are kinds
of madness that one finds only in specific societies” (4). This corresponds to
the modern contention that many behavioral disorders are socially constructed.
Hence a diagnoses of demon possession, while a common occurrence in France and
the Germanic states, is less likely to occur in Spain or Italy where Catholic
magical curatives are still sanctioned. A diagnoses of demonic possession is
even more seldom an occurrence in a country like England where mental health is
viewed as being biological in origin and care is under the jurisdiction of the
crown.
These
same symptoms of suffocation, wild gyrations and acting out are seen as Moth
frenzy among the Navaho. Young women are often thought to be the target of
witches and this disease is thought to be the result of a moth bite. In kind,
young people afflicted with Saint Vitus's dance and girls who succumb to the
bite of the tarantula and subsequently dance the Tarantella, are responding in
part, potentially to a spider bite, a beta-hemolytic streptococcal infection,
or hysteria. The diagnoses is a matter of where the symptomatic person lives.
In France and Italy the pizzica tarantata (little spider bite) is
thought to be the cause of a wild spastic, uncontrollable fit of dancing. The
dancing is supposed to help the afflicted person sweat out the spider venom.
But the etiology as defined by Allessandra Belloni is: “'the bite of love' that
occurs when one's subconscious mind is filled with repressed desires. This bite
of love often begins during puberty and is caused by a repression of erotic
desire or an experience of unrequited love, abuse or depression” (Belloni).
These fits correspond to a portion of the symptoms of hysteria, which is
commonly attributed to pubescent girls and elderly women who are recently
widowed and thus are suddenly deprived of sex.
Many
of these symptoms correspond to Dionysian behavioral rites. Through the
repudiation of ordinary protocols of existence, the afflicted seeks momentary
respite from imposed societal boundaries. This is true both in Navajo culture
as well as in lands that recognize the Tarantella and St. Vitus's dance. In
North Africa, Spain, Greece and Italy, the dancing convulsions are thought to
be cured solely by music and dance. Tambourines and drums are beaten until the
afflicted attains an ecstatic pinnacle that is considered to be a rite of
purification. Today, Ms. Belloni, the resurrector of this ancient ritual
volunteers at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York where she teaches the dance to
mental patients. Along with medication, the dance of the ancient spider is a
tool in the healing process of those suffering from bi-polar disorder,
schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder and epilepsy. The point of the
exercise is to: “break through into another order of experience. The desire of
the Dionysian, in personal experience or in ritual, is to press through it
toward a certain psychological state, to achieve excess” (Levy 10). Once
reached, as in the shudders of orgasm, the symptomatic behavior subsides.
Many
who complain of feeling cursed are also thought to be the victims of
melancholy. Melancholy is characterized as a form of depression that deprives
the patient of enthusiasm and eagerness. When diagnosed within the context of
bodily humours, melancholy is thought to be caused by burnt or black bile.
Melancholy is unquestionable the primary inspiration of most of the art of the
middle ages, as is evidenced by the fact that, among its sufferers are Eustache
Deschamps, George Chastellain and Jean Meschinot. The primary treatment of
melancholy is music and dance; the antithesis of acceptable behavior in the
eyes of Protestants. Indeed, divine music is thought to drive out the very
Devil himself.
The
Greeks consider those afflicted with visions and a flatness of countenance to
be possessed by the gods. But all those affected filter occurrences in their
world, “through the linguistic lenses of their time and place, and of their ethnicity,
class, age, and gender” (Midelfort 10). It is not surprising, therefore, that
those afflicted might be considered to be possessed in the early modern era, as
even today, ninety percent of disorders experienced worldwide are not to be
found among modern diagnostic journals.
'Madness'
is so general, so vague a term that we find ourselves forced to ask what it meant
in any given time or place, and so it well serves the purposes of an empirical historian
who aims as I do, to convey some of the flavor and strangeness of a forgotten culture. (Midelfort 11)
Midelfort
goes on to see a correlation between the flatness of melancholy in the manic
level of rationalism and introspection that so often accompany the myriad
symptoms of demonic possession.
Other
symptomatic behavior includes disassociation and a refusal to eat or drink.
People who refuse food or water are thought to be possessed by demons and are
kept alive solely by the hand of God. The conflict in diagnoses arises when one
who believe this melancholy is the result of black bile must confer with those
who believes these symptoms speak to the presence of the devil. This conflict
of diagnostic opinion is one that become more and more common in the days
following the Protestant Reformation. Very often rifts in diagnoses stem from
one who believes the alienated individual is merely suffering from a humoural
imbalance in their juices coming up against a more conventionally minded person
who sees the victim as overcome by sin and turning a blind eye to God.
Demonologists would infer that, “rather than being concerned solely with the
well-being of the individual … exorcism was a proving ground for faith,
legitimizing the authority of the individual who performed it” (Ferber 3). Thus
the well-being of the sufferer is less important than the saving of
Christianity's face with regard to those who suffer from an acute case of
disenchantment with the presiding culture.
A
case that highlights this disenchantment is that of Flemish painter, Hugo van
der Goes. The artist suffers a breakdown which he chooses to contend with by
becoming a spiritual recluse in a cloister.
In the midst of his spiritual downturn, he still paints and receives
visitors, among whom is Emperor Maximilian I. His depression is documented by
Gasper Ofhuys:
When
he saw and heard all that had happened, he suspected that he [Brother Hugo] was
afflicted
with the same disease [morbo] as had befallen King Saul, and recalling
that Saul had been helped by David's playing the
harp [1 Sam. 16: 14-23], he ordered lots of music to be made
[probably to be sung] and other theatrical performances [spectacula recreativa]
for Brother Hugo, by which he hoped to drive off his mental phantasies. Despite
these efforts, Brother Hugo did not get better; talking madly [aliena
loquens], he called himself a son of perdition,
and thus indisposed he came home [to the Roode Clooster]. (Midelfort 26)
Hugo
van der Goes remains convinced that his spiritual state of alienation is a curse
set upon him by God for the sin of pride in his accomplishment as a painter.
Therefore he punishes himself by retreating from the world lest his smite God
with his talent. As he lives in an era in which Godliness is all that matters,
the only means of coping he ascertains for himself is seclusion from the world
which would herald his achievements. This is a mental state also visible later
in the lives of both William Blake and Allen Ginsburgh. William Blake is often
beaten by his mother when he tries to explain to her that God speaks directly
through him. It is only through the eyes of history that one sees the
communication of that voice in Blake's poetry and paintings. Likewise, in GO
by John Clellon Holmes, the character Holmes bases on Ginsburgh, Stofsky,
is seen sleeplessly speaking to the ghost of William Blake in search of some
personal direction, in search for divine inspiration as it were:
To
find the Western path
Right
through the Gates of Wrath
I
urge my way … (Blake 85)
Here
Ginsburgh's character seeks spiritual guidance through his own mental illness
in one whom has suffered before him before God and man. These afflicted souls
are trying desperately to reconcile themselves with a spiritual dogma that
would stifle the human character in the name of what is culturally deemed to be
'right'. The melancholy suffered herein, thus, is a mechanism by which the
afflicted tries to reconcile the spiritual world in which they must live, with
the illness that dwells within them. Thus anomie becomes the more
accurate diagnoses of those the late Medieval period and the early modern era
would perceive as demonically possessed.
Faucaultian
theory contends that power, be it political, economic, or sexual, is derived
through knowledge, hence the presiding construct of knowledge is that which
yields the most power in a given society. Thus people who present as having
knowledge in a marginalized form, such as that derived through sexually driven
dancing mania, or that stemming from morose introspection, cannot be permitted
power within a Christian social paradigm. Therefore a diagnoses of witchcraft
or demonic possession must ensue. Demoniacs are seen as defying the presiding
conventions that are the socially constructed ideal of morality of the day. In
their trauma, they foresee the future, speak in tongues, and disclose the
secrets of the universe. These symptoms
operate in discord with Christian ideals, the predominant knowledge and thus
the predominant power. Judicial records
only record the names of demoniacs and witches when they are accused of
disrupting societal norms of behavior and thereby calling the social construct
of power into question.
As
sixteenth century Europeans concern themselves greatly with the concept of sin
and with the existence of the Devil, scandalous, marginal behavior falls under
the umbrella of only one possible etiology: that of demonic possession caused
by witches. No mind-body connection is understood as being anything other than
of this construct. During the Reformation, more Protestants than Catholics
commit suicide. Lutherans expect and even anticipate these suicides, given that
Luther himself is reported to wrestle with the Devil. Further consensus of this
belief that the human soul must live in constant battle with the forces of
darkness is the biblical account of Jesus in the wilderness working to cast out
demons within his own psyche. This myth serves to validate a phenomenon of
exorcism in the early modern era. However, exorcisms are often orchestrated to
win over converts, “to either Catholicism or a particular Protestant
denomination, making the veracity of all such accounts of possession
fundamentally suspect” (Levack 4). This is evidenced in the fact that many of
these stories are utilized in sermons meant to win converts and also in the
fact that these testimonies are often the words of the scribes and not the
words of the victims of possession. These instances serve to validate Emile
Durkeim's theory of anomie: that state of rootlessness and normlessness
found in a social construct that has been so quickly and so profoundly changed
as to leave its people with no tangible paradigm of reality in which they can
comfortably find and define themselves. Much of the conflict defined as demonic
possession therefore can be defined as the alienation of those souls who, for
whatever reason, fall into a state of conflict with the presiding social norms
of their day, norms that leave no room for the normalcy of emotions such as
despondency, despair, sexual anxiety or ecstasy: “efforts to unmask demonic
possessions as schizophrenia, melancholy as depression, or all psychiatric
categories as the ultimate tools of repression … are ubiquities. Only the
subjective notion of despair remains fairly common to most societies” (Lederer
145). One other means of healing these anomalies left to the people of the
early modern era albeit one that is becoming less common, is the healing act of
pilgrimage.
The
average pilgrim comes from the socio-economic class of commoners. Both men and
women resort to this means of healing their ills when faced with feelings of
being cursed. Many records of such accounts are kept at these shrines and
record the number of afflicted who seek out treatment. However these books have
been edited to favor the results ascribed to these individual saints. The
numbers however, are staggering and are recorded to dissuade the average
skeptic. Unedited versions of these records still do provide a uniform picture.
Even shrines not directly affiliated with the treatment of the mentally ill
confirm that an even number of men and women sought wellness in the name of
various saints and the blessed virgin: “The earliest printed miracle books kept
at any shrine in Bavaria are those of our Lady of Altotting from 1495 to 1497 …
confirm that at least forty-three pilgrims were treated for their spiritual
afflictions, both major and minor” (Lederer 150). Marian shrines also carry
records that state pilgrimages are made by relatives in the name of over 350
cases of madness and suicide. More than 1500 cases of spiritual afflictions are
also recorded elsewhere. These records are all coherent, deliberate and
consistent. The ill include criminals as well as law abiding family members.
All records delineate symptoms via means of, “Galenic humoral pathology,
Aristotelian faculty psychology, moral causality and magical explanations”
(Lederer 150). There is no record of
whether these treatments worked either completely or at all.
The
elimination of etiologies such as hysteria and St. Vitus's dance from the
vocabulary of maladies require a change in epistemology. For this to occur, the
mind and the body have to be viewed as separate from the soul. Nowhere are the
cultural and social forces necessary to cause this change, a place where
behavioral discrepancies are evaluated at face value during the late Medieval
and early modern era more prevalent, than in England.
Throughout
Europe people have enough wherewithal to differentiate between congenital
mental illness and supernatural afflictions. There are even hospitals that
house the insane although these facilities are rather Dickensian in their
outlook and treatment of such patients. While treatment is still inhumane by
modern standards, men like Juan Vives and Cornelius Agrippa are espousing
treatment plans based on scientific theories of the day. As early as the
thirteenth century theorists such as Bartholomaeus attribute mental illness to
nature rather that demons: “much evidence exists to suggest that the
Inquisition's interest in witchcraft – and its inevitable corollary insanity
was belated and secondary” (Neugebauer 478). Much of the mentally ill, like
those who suffer from diseases of questionable origins, are cared for by the
community as well as their families. Demonology only receives importance as an
etiology after the fifteenth century when relics, salt, and holy water are no
longer curative options.
Patients
in England fall into two categories, idiots: those who are incompetent from
birth, and lunatics: those who fall ill due to an accident, trauma or prolonged
illness. Idiots are protected by the crown, whereas lunatics are the
responsibility of their family. These agreements are a matter of English law,
but it is an understood aspect of culture that community care is to be
provided. In the paperwork for some patients however, diagnoses is occasionally
worded so that the onset of illness is said to be caused by the, “snares of
evil spirits” (Roffe 1708). One patient's information accounts her as being
not mentally sound and not having the intelligence
to care for herself. These intelligence tests entail her being asked to
correctly account for money and knowing what day of the week it is. This
confusing of intelligence with sanity is worth noting. Still, according to
Chancery, her family is allotted due sums of income from her estate sufficient
to cover the cost of her care.
The
diagnostic tool of humoural imbalance is still the norm. While most treatment
plans in hospital entail herbal, dietary and surgical procedures, spells are
still occasionally used to remedy symptomatic behavior. However madness brought
about by trauma is recognized and is treated with no regard for any possible
demonological root cause. Once the crown sorts out who is to be paid to care
for the mentally unsound person in question until they either became well, or
until an heir is old enough to inherit, both the family and the community
resume care for said person.
The
decision to put a person under the care of their family comes about through a
process of inquisition by jury. These men are asked questions so as to
ascertain their ability to judge the situation fairly. They then break down a
plan for the care of the incompetent person that includes, family, community
and royal involvement. The law that puts this form of guardianship into
practice is known as the Praerogativa regis. This dates back to the time
of King Edward I. The most enlightening fact of this legislation is that it
does not grant the right to a lord to interfere with the financial affairs of
his tenants and workers, making this the earliest known proof that England's
healthcare system is among the most compassionate in the world. That said,
complaints are still put forward often regarding caretakers not providing
sufficiently for their wards. This system of care, “was rooted in the need to
manage land, the primary nexus of medieval society” (Roffe 1710). The English,
here, manage to find a way to make making money and caring for their public
coincide.
The
question of whether a person is cursed or crazy is one affected by many
variables during the late Medieval and early modern era. Convulsive fits and
anxiety are often attributed to demonic possession. These diagnoses are not
pervasive, but rather occur where Protestantism has more of a stronghold on cultural
norms. Diseases like the Tarantata and St. Vitus's dance, once explained as
demonic possession, more accurately can be defined as responses to the
religious oppression of natural human responses to sexual and ecstatic desire.
Indeed, the cure for melancholy, dating all the way back to the time of King
Saul is music and dance. It is only in the face of the misinterpretation of
Christ's message that the well-being of the spiritually afflicted is considered
less important than the saving of Christian face. Artists throughout history
leave us with the evidence of this spiritual turmoil in the paintings, poems
and plays. This creative evidence points to the power of the church to mandate
the definition of knowledge. Worth noting is the higher number of suicides
among Protestants versus Catholics: this denoting the efficacy of magical
healing arts such as salt and holy water to assuage symptomatic behavior. Other
tools such as pilgrimage to holy shrines serve to heal the anomic tumult felt
by so many people during the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It
is only in England that mental illness begins to be viewed as a natural
phenomenon.
Upon
leaving the patient “Lisa” in Geauga hospital, her visitor tries to remind Lisa
that she is a child of God. The visitor recites the following prayer to her in
hopes that it may make Lisa feel better:
May
the road rise up to meet you.
May
the wind always be at your back.
May
the sun shine warm upon your face,
and
rains fall soft upon your fields.
And
until we meet again,
May
God hold you in the palm of His hand.
Lisa
responds with a smile. It is the sincerest hope of her visitor that she might
understand that this morsel of spirituality is meant to buoy her in her time of
pain. In this era of medicalization of what was once considered to be a
spiritual conflict, pain still exists. The social construct of how that pain is
addressed is all that time has amended.
Works
Cited
Belloni,
Alessandra. “Liner Notes.” Tarantata: Dance of the Ancient Spider. Alessandra
Belloni. Sounds True, 2003. CD.
Ferber,
Sarah. Demonic Possession And Exorcism In Early Modern France. London:
Routledge, 2004. Print.
Blake,
William. “Daybreak” in GO. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1952. Print.
Lederer,
David. Madness, Religion And The State In Early Modern Europe. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2006. Print.
Levack,
Brain P. The Devil Within: Possession & Exorcism In The Christian West. New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2013. Print.
Levy,
Jerrold E. et al. Hand Trembling, Frenzy Witchcraft, And Moth Madness: A
Story Of Navaho Seizure Disorders. Tucson: The University Of Arizona Press,
1987. Print.
Midelfort,
Erik H.C. A History Of Madness In Sixteenth-Century Germany. Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 1999. Print.
Midelfort,
Erik H.C. Witchcraft, Madness, Society, And Religion In Early Modern
Germany: A Ship Of Fools. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2013. Print.
Neugebauer,
Richard. “Medieval And Early Modern Theories Of Mental Illness.” Archives Of
General Psychiatry 36. 4. (1979): 477-483. Print.
Roffe,
David., and Roffe, Christine. “Madness And Care In The Community: A Medieval
Perspective.” BMJ: British Medical Journal 311. 7021. (1995): 1708-1712.
Print.
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5. “Irish Blessings & Prayers” Island Ireland. Irish Folk Culture.
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