Burning Feathers

A Hint at Hysteria in a Connecticut Witchcraft Case

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8933352
AutoresJoseph Pentangelo (0000-0002-3964-8862, Twitter (United States), autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen132
Número1
Páginas59-71
Fecha de publicación2021-01-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaFolklore (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0015-587X • E-ISSN: 1469-8315
EditorialRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0015587x.2020.1763624
OpenAlexW3136862119
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas13

In Stamford, Connecticut, in 1692, the teenage Katherine Branch was tormented by visions, fainting spells, convulsions, and crying episodes. She claimed that she was bewitched. Many neighbours came to see her during her affliction, offering their own suggestions and interpretations of what was happening. One woman, Mrs Sarah Bates, suggested that Katherine’s affliction resulted from a natural illness, and advised that feathers be burnt under the girl’s nose. This article proposes that Mrs Bates supposed that Katherine was suffering from hysteria, or ‘suffocation of the mother’, a medical diagnosis proposed by English physician Edward Jorden in 1603 specifically to address cases of apparent witchcraft

Art · BATES · Crying · Developmental psychology · Dream · Fainting · Girl · Hysteria · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Vision · Anthropology · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Psychology