From demons to depression: A history of pre-modern mental health

What it covers

In this unit you will learn how unusual psychological and somatopsychic experiences were understood in premodern Europe. You will trace the long history of concepts such as ‘possession’, ‘ecstasy’, ‘melancholy’, ‘hypochondria’, ‘hysteria’, ‘anorexia’, ‘lovesickness’ and ‘tarantism’ from late antiquity to the eighteenth century. Is it possible to diagnose people in the past with modern psychiatric conditions such as depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia? And if not, what can the historiography of religion, medicine and the emotions teach us about the creation, legitimation or stigmatisation of ‘altered states’ of mind and body? Sign up to do battle with demons, fly with witches, cry with mystics, vibe with vampires, and dance the tarantella!

Assessment

When and where