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A History of Madness in Sixteenth-Century Germany (Paperback, First)
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A History of Madness in Sixteenth-Century Germany (Paperback, First)
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This magisterial work explores how Renaissance Germans understood
and experienced madness. It focuses on the insanity of the world in
general but also on specific disorders; examines the thinking on
madness of theologians, jurists, and physicians; and analyzes the
vernacular ideas that propelled sufferers to seek help in
pilgrimage or newly founded hospitals for the helplessly
disordered. In the process, the author uses the history of madness
as a lens to illuminate the history of the Renaissance, the
Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the history of poverty and
social welfare, and the history of princely courts, state building,
and the civilizing process.
Rather than try to fit historical experience into modern
psychiatric categories, this book reconstructs the images and
metaphors through which Renaissance Germans themselves understood
and experienced mental illness and deviance, ranging from such
bizarre conditions as St. Vitus's dance and demonic possession to
such medical crises as melancholy and mania. By examining the
records of shrines and hospitals, where the mad went for relief, we
hear the voices of the mad themselves.
For many religious Germans, sin was a form of madness and the
sinful world was thoroughly insane. This book compares the thought
of Martin Luther and the medical-religious reformer Paracelsus, who
both believed that madness was a basic category of human
experience. For them and others, the sixteenth century was an age
of increasing demonic presence; the demon-possessed seemed to be
everywhere. For Renaissance physicians, however, the problem was
finding the correct ancient Greek concepts to describe mental
illness. In medical terms, the late sixteenth century was the age
of melancholy. For jurists, the customary insanity defense did not
clarify whether melancholy persons were responsible for their
actions, and they frequently solicited the advice of physicians.
Sixteenth-century Germany was also an age of folly, with fools
filling a major role in German art and literature and present at
every prince and princeling's court. The author analyzes what
Renaissance Germans meant by folly and examines the lives and
social contexts of several court fools.
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