Introduction
Psychology has always been an interesting field for scientists and doctors. It has been an intriguing topic from centuries, ago dating back to the 1500’s and has continued to be in the present world that we live in today. Scientists and doctors have attempted to find explanations for things that appear as abnormal behaviour within an individual. During the 1600’s-1800’s these abnormal behaviours did not have the names that we as a society have come up with today. During this time the explanations that were given were significantly different then the findings we have today. With this in mind, it is found that there has always been logical reasoning to be made out of things, and all contribute to our understanding of mental health today. Not one time period is more “right” then the other, because it all has been presented as logical at some point in time. The focus of this digital exhibition will be to examine how madness was portrayed during the early modern period (1500-1800) and at the end of each post, I will compare it to society’s viewpoints today. It is highly important to see how people apart of these time periods viewed mental health, more specifically madness, and how it has contributed to our understanding and findings in the present medical community
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Madness: Brief History of Madness
“Porter’s “History of Madness” chapter begins with a disclaimer of sorts that the cause and cure of mental illness has no rational consensus, and acknowledges the ongoing debate over madness as a disease. Porter makes it clear that insanity diagnosis is more closely related to the psychosocial construct of the period identifying and characterizing madness, than to actual abnormal ideas or behaviour.” With that being said there has always been an attempt to understand madness throughout the past time periods and how they contribute to our knowledge today. “The growing expression of science and improvements in education after the Middle Ages moulded the concept of rationality that right-thinking members of society had the power to impose social norms. Abnormality provoked anxiety, and because of this anxiety it made people feel as if they had to act upon the situation of appeared abnormality and do something. Overall, this anxiety “commenced Foucault’s period of “The Great Confinement” as asylums housed the insane, and sequestration became a matter of civil policy.” It was noted that Asylums were very popular when dealing with those who appeared as mad during the early modern period, and played a significant part in the separation of those who were abnormal and those who were normal in society. Subsequently, “Segregating the mad into asylums diminished their ability to live in and among the normal, supporting a self-fulfilling prophecy. Porter attests to the “profound distrust, often antagonism, felt by mad people towards psychiatry”, because for them, there was no help, the only answer was complete isolation. It was found that during certain time periods specifically during the 1600’s – 1800’s madness was shaped a lot by religion and one’s belief in God. The devil played a special part in somebody’s abnormal behaviour, and people were to be washed away from their sins in order to heal. Perceval as an example, “had Freudian reasons for madness. He sought the truth in religion and participated in the speaking in tongues. He experienced a veritable cacophony of competing voices in his head: an ‘inward cross-examination” After a short period of time he was placed in “Dr. Edward Long Fox’s lunatic asylum in 1832”. It was noted that there were several attempts to get better, and inevitably he was able to do this by self realization, however society at first “oppressed him” and “likened to boiling lobsters alive” was used as a comparison to describe the feeling at hand. Overall, Porter demonstrates some of the the ways that the Early Modern Period treated individuals who suffered from “madness”, and the reasons as to why it occurred. Making sense of madness can be a difficult thing, even today in society we struggle with understanding certain aspects of one’s mental health that provokes them to be a specific way.
Comparison to Society Today:
Individuals with mental health issues, are not locked up in asylums and separated from society, instead they are observed, diagnosed, treated to create a progress within the individual, in order to integrate them to be apart of society, instead of withdraw them from it
Notes
Mandel, Ellen D. 2008. “A Social History of Madness.” Journal Of Psychiatry & Law 36, no. 4: 659-667. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed November 20, 2016).
Madness 1600-1700: Bile, Bodily Humours, and Diet
Madness during the sixteenth and seventeenth century as previously talked about took a somewhat different perspective then things that we are accustomed to now, and “the critical emphasis placed on the Renaissance as the ‘Golden Age of melancholy’ (pace Starobinski) might explain Midelfort’s claim that during this period a ‘powerful new set of metaphors’ became available for describing mental disorder. “The Flemish Protestant physician Johann Weyer drew on Galen’s idea (in De symptomatum causis) that the imagination could become corrupted by black bile and other humours, and on St Jerome’s notion of black bile as the ‘devil’s bath’, to stress how the devil could ‘stir the humours or vapours suitable for his purposes, or bring his own special air into the organs’ to cause strange apparitions and delusions.” It is interesting to see how the explanation of bile or bodily humours were the terms that were used back then to explain specific things that contributed to madness, it was noted that if something as off balance within the humours that the individual as a whole would be affected overall, thus resulting in some kind of problem with the individuals behaviour and mental health. Again, the disturbance is associated with the devil, and it is used as a reasoning to explain madness. Another opinion is proposed by Galen he “had stressed that the production of the humours would be affected by the predominance of cold or heat in the person, according to his or her age, occupation, place of residence, season, and the cold or hot nature of the food. People should thus eat the most appropriate food for their individual complexion and their specific circumstances.” Interestingly, the suggestions are similar to what we would hear today, it is essential to have a balanced diet in order to maintain a healthy life style, however, does that mean a healthy life style means a healthy mind? not necessarily today, but back then this idea was promising because it would keep everything balanced, which means the humours would be aligned within the individual. It is intriguing to note that, an individuals overall place in society would contribute to how their humours would align. “For most people, bad dreams, sadness and mental cloudiness were not states of mind which required self-discipline or medical care, but everyday ailments, rooted in their bodies, which could be dealt with, alongside other ailments like wind or constipation, through everyday practices such as eating, and mundane activities such as changing the water of the lentils”, so it was always perceived as something that was not properly functioning in the body, something that could be fixed by changing how something else was done, this is still true to an extent. Overall, during this time period it was generally believed that ‘black bile’ contributed to madness, and in order to cure it, one must get rid of this bile, since it was known to distort perception, and create delusions.
Comparison to Society Today:
In society today, as previously mentioned we do not refer to religious aspects for specific reasons, and do not use the terms bile or bodily humours, a similar thing though is we still do take body temperature and if the body seems to be producing things that are not natural, we take this into consideration. Doctors of today also recommend that individuals stick to healthy diets, in order to maintain a balanced lifestyle, this is something that is consistent with the early modern period as well. However, to add, black bile today can be known as a chemical imbalance in the brain, which causes certain mental disorders such as bipolar or schizophrenia.
Notes:
Elena Carrera, “Understanding Mental Disturbance in Sixteenth- and …,” 106-121, accessed November 23, 2016, http://www.bing.com/cr?IG=FACEFB23480D43AC877F7A2D99694C4E&CID=02DC8695EC4E6F2816218F76ED7F6ED2&rd=1&h=abpdkCe1ZsYJ8cI-QugzpI1vPpn1Py7XBkp4-SId9v8&v=1&r=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14753820.2010.530837&p=DevEx,5037.1.
Madness 1600-1700: Religion
“In the early modern period, madness assumed an important role in European thought and to a certain extent replaced the obsession with death which had characterized the preceding centuries. If by the late middle ages, human vices were being satirized in the danse macabre, with the allegorical figure of Death heading a morbid parade of characters from across the social spectrum, then by the early modern period, it was Madness who was leading the procession, suggesting that nothing was what it seemed.” This is an interesting point of view when it comes to understanding how madness was represented, individuals, were infatuated with understanding the course that madness took upon people, and were preoccupied with making sense of it, because it meant a reveal of something that stood for the truth. It is noted that “within Christian theology, the characteristically ambiguous nature of madness manifested itself throughout the middle ages in two parallel and theoretically contradictory discourses. On the one hand, in line with the preaching of St Paul,5 insanity was associated with a kind of innocence – ‘holy simplicity’ – a manner of behaving that in the eyes of the world might appear absurd and incomprehensible, but which deep down revealed a strong desire to imitate Christ and the ‘folly of the cross’” which demonstrates the viewpoint that madness had on people during this time period, that it was associated with God and the Bible, the notion of having to repent and wipe away one’s sin comes to mind. Tausiet states that “as far back as classical times, people had believed that all sickness was sent by the gods to punish them for having transgressed their laws and that, therefore, its treatment should be essentially penitential, in other words saying prayers or making offerings or sacrifices in order to atone for the sin or moral transgression that had given rise to the illness”. Interestingly, illness was not perceived as much as a psychological disturbance, more so along the lines of a spiritual disturbance, however the two still worked hand in hand to understanding the individuals madness. Overall “inseparable from human nature and its weaknesses – hid beneath its veil an endless parade of wretched souls, social misfits, the mad and half-mad, hotheads and even false lunatics, and rogues who turned the ruling ideology to their own advantage.Despite attempts by a reductionist moral discourse to tame madness, it proved to be a slippery and unmanageable beast” which means that no matter how hard they tried to alleviate madness, it was still present, there were several attempts that would not reduce the amount of “insanity” that would occur in society.
Comparison to Society Today:
We know that illness does not derive due to innate sin and that although praying to have help or get better, this will not always fix the problem that is occurring. Mental health is something that is recognized as a problem with a treatment, that requires medical action in order for the individual to feel better. Less emphasis is placed on religion nowadays, whereas more emphasis and explanations were placed in the hands of “God”, it is evident though that both science and religion still do play a part in connecting together, just there is less emphasis on spiritual aspects when it comes to understanding mental health.
Notes:
TAUSIET, MARÍA. “Taming Madness: Moral Discourse and Allegory in Counter-Reformation Spain.” History, 2009., 279-293, JSTOR Journals, EBSCOhost (accessed November 20, 2016).
Treatment for Madness: A Short Clip
Below, a short clip to better understand how madness was treated in some ways during the early modern period:
– It is interesting to note, that in society patients were seemingly tortured more so then actually helped
– Methods were used that seemed to be producing the best possible results at the time, however I ask myself the question if they really did see any results with the methods they used, and if they did not, how did the people of this time finally notice they were causing more harm then good?
Comparison to Society Today:
In society today, we recognize if people have a mental health issue, and instead of harming them with painful procedures, we attempt to solve the problem via various methods such as medications, cognitive-behavioural therapy, learning based therapy and so forth. There are multiple alternatives, and usually most of them result in the benefit of the person, although that can be contradictory when looked at in terms of “prescribing pills”, it is safe to say that less physically torturous methods are used when it comes to treating people that appear as “mad.”
Notes:
Kratosmara. YouTube. 2010. Accessed November 25, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Izmyru5T_w.
Madness 1600-1800: Language of Psychiatry
“Psychiatry as a more or less independent medical speciality emerged in the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries, one should only remember that Pinel in France and the Tukes in England were hailed as the fathers of modern psychiatry by their contemporaries.” With this in mind, during the earlier centuries there was not as significant emphasis placed on medical treatments in the same sense for those who appeared as mad. It is evident that “British medical writings from c. 1600 to c.1760, talk about “mental disease” in its strict sense was impossible in language of learned medicine, because there was no such thing as diseased mind. When doctors were talking about madness, they were talking about a disease of the body in which the soul of the patient remained absolutely intact”, It was found the talk of a diseased mind came as well came about during the 1760’s. Subsequently there was the medical issue of dualism that contributed to understanding that the mind worked separately from the body which did not contribute to the mental health of an individual. Some scientists and doctors argued that the soul did not change of an individual that had a mental health problem, however others disagreed and said the both correlated, thus resulting in change. Generally, it was noted though that “there was a immortality of the soul”, again it is noted that the spirit plays an important part in understanding the madness of an individual, however it is interesting to see how the language of psychiatry shifted over the centuries to produce more of an understanding for those who suffered from a diseased body/mind.
Comparison to Society Today:
In society today, we understand that both the body and the mind play a primary role in understanding how to treat a patient, however it is possible to have a functioning mind, with a non functioning body, but again, this duality that was mentioned in this text presents a viewpoint that is more spiritually inclined, rather then scientifically. Again, both contribute to the overall understanding of psychiatry and how certain things contributed to our knowledge today.
Notes:
Suzuki, A. “Dualism and the transformation of psychiatric language in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.” History Of Science; An Annual Review Of Literature, Research And Teaching 33, no. 102 pt 4 (December 1995): 417-447. MEDLINE, EBSCOhost (accessed November 27, 2016).
Madness 1600-1700: A look at Melancholy: Final thoughts
It is evident that there has been a huge shift in mentality between the early modern period in comparison to now, the language being the primary thing that has changed, for example John Arbuthnot 1667-1735 describes melancholy, a form of madness to be “a Disease more terrible than Death, extremely obstinate, invading sometimes by insensible degrees, and hard to be cur’d when it has taken place, the Approaches towards it ought to be carefully observ’d. These are commonly obstinate Watchfulness, or short Sleeps, troublesome and terrible Dreams, great Solicitude and Anxiety of Mind, with Sighing, sudden Fits of Anger without any Occasion given, Love of Solitude, Obstinacy in defending trifling Opinions, and Contempt of such as are about them.”
With that being said it is interesting to note how things are worded in comparison to how we would word symptoms of depression now, we would say one suffers from insomnia, or sleeps to much, loss of appetite, suicidal thoughts, and so forth, however this bring about the idea that the past has shaped and define the present, without these observations and understandings of things that was created a long time ago we would not be where we are today, so yes, the language and understandings have changed, however, the logic behind them remains the same, and that is why it is so important to understand the history behind the science.
Notes:
“Practical Rules of Diet in the Various Constitutions and Diseases of Human Bodies: By John Arbuthnot, ..,” Eighteenth Century Collections Online, 1732, accessed December 2, 2016, https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004889406.0001.000/1:8?rgn=div1;view=fulltext.
Bibliography
Arbuthnot, John. “Practical Rules of Diet in the Various Constitutions and Diseases of Human Bodies: By John Arbuthnot, ..” 1732. Accessed December 2, 2016. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004889406.0001.000/1:8?rgn=div1;view=fulltext.
Elena Carrera, “Understanding Mental Disturbance in Sixteenth- and..,” 106-121, accessed November 23, 2016, http://www.bing.com/cr?IG=FACEFB23480D43AC877F7A2D99694C4E&CID=02DC8695EC4E6F2816218F76ED7F6ED2&rd=1&h=abpdkCe1ZsYJ8cI-QugzpI1vPpn1Py7XBkp4-SId9v8&v=1&r=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14753820.2010.530837&p=DevEx,5037.1.
Kratosmara. YouTube. 2010. Accessed November 25, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Izmyru5T_w.
Mandel, Ellen D. 2008. “A Social History of Madness.” Journal Of Psychiatry & Law 36, no. 4: 659-667. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed November 20, 2016).
Suzuki, A. “Dualism and the transformation of psychiatric language in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.” History Of Science; An Annual Review Of Literature, Research And Teaching 33, no. 102 pt 4 (December 1995): 417-447. MEDLINE, EBSCOhost (accessed November 27, 2016).
Tausiet, Maria. “Taming Madness: Moral Discourse and Allegory in Counter-Reformation Spain.” History, 2009., 279-293, JSTOR Journals, EBSCOhost (accessed November 20, 2016).
The Scientific Enlightenment 