The Supernatural Tradition Chapter 1 AB Psych

THE SUPERNATURAL TRADITION

• DEMONS AND WITCHES

• STRESS AND MELANCHOLY

• TREATMENTS FOR POSSESSION

• MASS HYSTERIA

• THE MOON AND STARS

DEMONS AND WITCHES

During the last quarter of the 14th century, religious and lay authorities supported these popular superstitions, and society began to believe more strongly in the existence and power of demons and witches. People increasingly turned to magic and sorcery to solve their problems. It followed that individuals “possessed” by evil spirits were responsible for any misfortune experienced by people in the community.

STRESS AND MELANCHOLY

Reflected the enlightened view that insanity was a natural phenomenon, caused by mental or emotional stress, and that it was curable.

Mental depression and anxiety were recognized as illnesses, although symptoms, such as despair and lethargy were often identified by the church with the sin of acedia, or sloth.

TREATMENTS FOR STRESS AND MELANCHOLY

• Rest

• Sleep

• Healthy and happy environment

• Baths

• Ointments

• Various potions

During the 14th and 15th centuries, people with insanity, along with those with physical deformities or disabilities, were often moved from house to house in medieval villages as neighbors took turns caring for them.

TREATMENTS FOR DEMONS AND WITCHES

• Exorcism

• Shaving the pattern of a cross in the hair of the victim’s head

• Securing sufferers to a wall near the front of a church so they might benefit from hearing Mass

Nicholas Oresme

A bishop, philosopher, and one of the chief advisers of the King of France in the 14th century, suggested that the disease of melancholy (depression) was the source of some bizarre behavior, rather than demons.

TREATMENTS FOR POSSESSION

• Is not always connected with sin but may be seen as involuntary and the possessed individual is blameless

• Exorcism was used to cure possession and at least have the virtue of being relatively painless and they sometimes work.

If possession didn’t work

To make the body uninhabitable by evil spirits, many people were subjected to confinement, beatings, and other forms of torture.

A creative “therapist” decided that hanging people over a pit full of poisonous snakes might scare the evil spirits out of their bodies—this approach sometimes worked. Many other treatments based on hypothesized therapeutic elements of shock were developed (e.g. dunkings in ice cold water).

MASS HYSTERIA

• Is characterized by large-scale outbreaks of bizarre behavior

• In Europe, whole groups of people were simultaneously compelled to run out in the streets, dance, shout, rave, and jump around in patterns as if they were at a particularly wild party. This behavior was known by several names (e.g., Saint Vitus’ Dance and tarantism)

  • One reasonable guess was reaction to insect bites

  • Another possibility was what we now call mass hysteria

• May simply demonstrate the phenomenon of emotion contagion

Emotion Contagion

• In which the experience of an emotion seems to spread to those around us

• If someone nearby becomes frightened or sad, chances are that, for the moment, you also will feel fear or sadness. When this kind of experience escalates into full-blown panic, whole communities are affected

• In popular language, this shared response is sometimes referred to as mob psychology

THE MOON AND STARS

Paracelsus

• Rejected notions of possession by the devil, suggesting instead that the movements of the moon and stars had profound effects on people’s psychological functioning

• Speculated that the gravitational effects of the moon on bodily fluids might be a possible cause of mental disorders

Inspired the word lunatic from the Latin word luna, meaning “moon”