A reappraisal of medieval mysticism & hysteria
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19504897 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jerome Kroll (0000-0001-5792-0308, University of Minnesota), Bernard S Bachrach (Twin Cities Orthopedics), BERNARD BACHRACH, Kathleen Carey (0000-0002-7924-431X, University of Minnesota) |
| Year | 2002 |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 83-98 |
| Publication date | 2002-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Mental Health Religion & Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1367-4676 • E-ISSN: 1469-9737 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13674670110112749 |
| OpenAlex | W2067258389 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 18 |
This paper examines the historical association between medieval mysticism and asceticism and the psychopathological condition of hysteria. We first review the particular forms of medieval mysticism and asceticism that seem to have inspired modern psychiatrists and reductive historians to dismiss these phenomena as indubitably neurotic behaviours. Then we review the concept of hysteria as it evolved during the last two centuries for points of convergence with mysticism. Finally, we question the validity of value-laden diagnostic formulations in the domain of personality assessment. A few highly dramatic but culturally endorsed religious behaviours occuring in an otherwise well functioning individual does not constitute a basis for any psychiatric diagnosis, let alone a condemnatory characterological one such as hysteria. We propose a perspective for looking at medieval mystical states of mind and behaviours in context that moves beyond ahistoric assumptions that employ modern Western standards as the yardstick for medieval health and illness
Archaeology · Art · Asceticism · Hysteria · Mysticism · Psychoanalysis · Theology · History · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Personality Disorders and Psychopathology · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
Shamans, priests, and witches
The Problem of Pure Consciousness
Zen and the Brain
Openness to absorbing and self-altering experiences ("absorption"), a trait related to hypnotic susceptibility.
A Psychobiological Model of Temperament and Character
Margery Kempe, a new theory
The Ascetic Ideal in the History of the Church
The Social Causation of Affective Mysticism
Individual differences in phenomenological experience
The Psychology of Asceticism
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |