Possession or Insanity
Two Views from the Victorian Lunatic Asylum
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5305686 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anthony Ossa-Richardson, Anthony Ossa‐richardson (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 74 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 553-575 |
| Publication date | 2013-10-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the History of Ideas (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-5037 • E-ISSN: 1086-3222 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/jhi.2013.0028 |
| OpenAlex | W2004552891 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 3 |
This article examines a controversy, between two English asylum chaplains of the 1850s, about the nature of demonic possession in the New Testament. I trace both chaplains' views to German theological debates on the subject from the late eighteenth century, and show how these discussions chimed with new theories about 'moral insanity' being developed by contemporary psychiatrists in England and France. Finally, I argue that the compromise between rationalist and supernaturalist explanations of possession, developed by German theologians, was used by the two chaplains to justify their contentious place in the modern asylum
Archaeology · Compromise · German · Insanity · Lunatic · Political science · Possession (linguistics) · Sociology · Subject (documents) · French Literature and Poetry · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychedelics and Drug Studies
| Citations per year | 0.14 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2019 - 2019 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |