Hugendubel.info - Die B2B Online-Buchhandlung 

Merkliste
Die Merkliste ist leer.
Bitte warten - die Druckansicht der Seite wird vorbereitet.
Der Druckdialog öffnet sich, sobald die Seite vollständig geladen wurde.
Sollte die Druckvorschau unvollständig sein, bitte schliessen und "Erneut drucken" wählen.

Pazze di Lui - Mad for Him: Hagiographic Stereotypes, Mental Disturbances and Anthropological Implications of Female Saintliness in Italy and Abroad from the 13th to the 20th Century

E-BookEPUBePub WasserzeichenE-Book
Englisch
Narr Francke Attempto Verlagerschienen am17.06.20241. Auflage
The aim of this book is to investigate the delicate relationship between female sanctity and madness, in a time-frame extending from medieval until contemporary times. Constellated by visions, ecstatic raptures, morbid rituals, stigmata and obsessions, the complex phenomenology of female mysticism appears in fact to be articulated and polymorphous, traversed by 'representations' that it seems possible to link to the wide spectrum of mental disorders, as well to the hagiographic stereotypes and anthropological implications. Male and female scholars from different disciplines (from history to philology, from anthropology to art history, from theology to literary criticism, from psychiatry to psychoanalysis) try to outline a thematic and problematic itinerary, intended to examine, step by step, potential pathological aspects and contexts of reference for the purpose of attempting to reconstruct the complex evolutionary trajectory of female mystical language.

PhD at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (2016), Dr. Mattia Zangari's research interests are directed at female sanctity, from the Middle Ages to the modern period. As well as studying the biographies of female saints, for many years he has studied the relationship between female sanctity and mental disturbance, and he has carried out cutting-edge research (he was the first Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow to conduct research at the Vatican, in the frame of a co-supervision with Università Ca' Foscari Venezia). Dr. Zangari carried out research at prestigious centres abroad, such as the CRRS of the University of Toronto. He is author of many publications, the most important are: Santità femminile e disturbi mentali fra Medioevo ed età moderna (Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2022); La santa e il Giglio: mistiche nella Firenze del Seicento (Roma, Carocci, 2022); Tre storie di santità femminile tra parole e immagini: agiografie, memoriali e fabulae depictae fra Due e Trecento (Narr, Tübingen, 2019).mehr
Verfügbare Formate
BuchGebunden
EUR68,00
E-BookEPUBePub WasserzeichenE-Book
EUR54,99
E-BookPDF1 - PDF WatermarkE-Book
EUR54,99

Produkt

KlappentextThe aim of this book is to investigate the delicate relationship between female sanctity and madness, in a time-frame extending from medieval until contemporary times. Constellated by visions, ecstatic raptures, morbid rituals, stigmata and obsessions, the complex phenomenology of female mysticism appears in fact to be articulated and polymorphous, traversed by 'representations' that it seems possible to link to the wide spectrum of mental disorders, as well to the hagiographic stereotypes and anthropological implications. Male and female scholars from different disciplines (from history to philology, from anthropology to art history, from theology to literary criticism, from psychiatry to psychoanalysis) try to outline a thematic and problematic itinerary, intended to examine, step by step, potential pathological aspects and contexts of reference for the purpose of attempting to reconstruct the complex evolutionary trajectory of female mystical language.

PhD at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (2016), Dr. Mattia Zangari's research interests are directed at female sanctity, from the Middle Ages to the modern period. As well as studying the biographies of female saints, for many years he has studied the relationship between female sanctity and mental disturbance, and he has carried out cutting-edge research (he was the first Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellow to conduct research at the Vatican, in the frame of a co-supervision with Università Ca' Foscari Venezia). Dr. Zangari carried out research at prestigious centres abroad, such as the CRRS of the University of Toronto. He is author of many publications, the most important are: Santità femminile e disturbi mentali fra Medioevo ed età moderna (Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2022); La santa e il Giglio: mistiche nella Firenze del Seicento (Roma, Carocci, 2022); Tre storie di santità femminile tra parole e immagini: agiografie, memoriali e fabulae depictae fra Due e Trecento (Narr, Tübingen, 2019).

Inhalt/Kritik

Inhaltsverzeichnis
Mattia ZangariParoxysms, stigmata and dolls in convents. Female Sanctity and Mental Illness between the Middle Ages and the Modern Ages (introduction)Isabella GagliardiDiscretio, diagnosi e patente di santità alla prova della "pazzia" (secc. XI-XIV)Maurizio GronchiSante e malate, non solo d'amore? Uno sguardo storico-teologicoMartina Bengert, André OttoBetween Pathology and Pathos. Spectacular Utterances in The Book of Margery KempeAlfonsina BellioUn >? Femminilità profetiche tra letture di tipo psicopatologico e antropologiaMattia ZangariFemale Visionary Saints: an alternative Interpretation. Female sanctity, Visionaryism and Hysteria in the Medieval and Modern AgeTorsten Passie, Elisabeth PetrowThe Ecstasies of St. Teresa of Avila. Phenomenology, Illness and ResilienceArmando MaggiL'abbandono al Male. Le esperienze di Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi e Veronica Giuliani .Rudolph M. BellSaint Veronica Giuliani. The Five Autobiographies of Orsolina GiulianiTine Van Osselaer, Leonardo Rossi, Kristof Smeyers, Linde TuybensMystical phenomena as symptoms of social disease .Manuela Fraire (a cura di Greta Maria Alessia Redaelli)Baby doll. La "maternità" in conventoChiara BastaTra pedagogia e amour fou. Il culto di Gesù bambino nei monasteri femminili (secoli XV-XVII)CurriculaIndex of namesmehr
Leseprobe


Paroxysms, stigmata and dolls in convents

Female Sanctity and Mental Illness
between the Middle Ages and the Contemporary Times
(introduction)


Mattia Zangari

This book compiles the works conducted by several scholars, both men and women, who attended the conference Mad for Him. Female Sanctity and Mental Illness between the Middle Ages and the Modern Ages, which was held at Ca´ Foscari University of Venice in November 2021. On said occasion, the author asked the speakers to reflect on the sensitive relationship between female sanctity and mental illness. Specifically, they were asked to investigate whether the famous paroxysms experienced by the mystique women could be compared to events that nowadays, through the lens of the medical code, are normally considered pathological. The critical perspectives provided were extremely inspiring, as historians, philologists, art historians and anthropologists, as well as psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and theologists, participated. The structural framework given to the various studies cited is especially noteworthy, as the interpretative approach to the texts allowed a comprehensive examination of the matter at the core of the topic, without losing sight of the focus. The reflections, all characterized by a different heuristic praxis, highlighted not only the possibly pathological aspects of the mystical language, but also the shaping power of the assumptions underlying hagiographic presuppositions attributable to madness and, likewise, the anthropological applications inherent to sensibility marked by spatiotemporal lapses attributable to the protagonists of the holy madness.

This introductory essay aims to outline a speech illustrating how specific well-known mental disturbances, such as hysteria, delirium and dermographism, are evident and may also be documented in contexts associated with female sanctity. The analysis shall include a brief introduction of the bibliography, centered on the matter of sancta insania, followed by a presentation of the clinical cases.

Bernard de Chartres stated that modern people´ are dwarves on the shoulders of giants. This image effectively captures the difference between the outcomes of this study, which will hereinafter be shown as «shortly» and «with defect», and the extensive pre-existing bibliography. Regrettably, only the most important works consulted shall be quoted and the overview will be particularly tachygraphic. In particular, beginning with Positivism, both transgressive´ experimentalism and more diplomatic readings lent their ear to more endogenous, subversive, centrifugal narrative currents, in the attempt to address the personality of those saints who were analyzed´ through a seemingly abusive process that conferred psychoanalysis retroactive validity.

A paradigm with an axial interpretation would have been provided by the work of nineteenth-century doctors, committed, in various ways, to examining the phenomenology of a thousand-year-old evil: the wandering uterus, hysteria, with which the mystics have often been associated. Once the antiquated theory that the uterus caused crises as it migrated from one part of the woman´s body to another had been superseded, the paroxysms of hysterics were attributed to organic and psychosomatic causes. Jean-Martin Charcot, the neurologist of the Salpétrière, asserted that mystical ecstasy was a hysterical manifestation, while also Cesare Lombroso, Richard von Krafft-Ebing and even Sigmund Freud and Jaques Lacan shared this idea as research on hysteria progressed.

The contribution of Pierre Janet proved indispensable for the advancement of studies in Christian psychopathology. As a fellow physician affiliated with Salpêtrière, Janet, through his work De l´angoisse à l´extase - published between 1926 and 1928 - recounted the experiences of his patient, Madeleine, who frequently experienced ecstasy, stigmata, and assumed crucifixion postures. He also drew parallels between Madeleine and Teresa of Ávila (â 1582). Teresa of Ávila was the mystic doctora of siglo de oro, and in the late 19th century, on the occasion of a writing contest held in Salamanca to celebrate three hundredth anniversary of her death, skepticism arose regarding her personality, leading to concerns about her canonization. For example, Belgian physiologist and Jesuit father Guillaume Hahn, one of Charcot´s scholars, in his acclaimed essay Les phénomènes hystériques et les révélations de sainte Therese, stated that the Saint from Avila suffered from hysterical-epilepsy and a severe hysteria. Subsequently, from Krafft-Ebing to Lacan, a critical perspective was outlined claiming that the Avilana saint had essentially enjoyed sexual pleasures, rather than celestial ecstasy. Lancan went as far as inviting skeptics to go to Rome to admire Bernini´s famous Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, and personally verify the sensual undertone of the sculpture. He stated: «ça ne fait pas de doute, elle jouit», which translates to «there is no doubt about this, she is having an orgasm».

In recalling the salient features of the cultural climate that sought to investigate the history of spirituality, including the mystical´ implications of the case examined with other tools, such as psychoanalysis, one cannot overlook the work of Michel de Certeau, who had also participated in the establishment of the École française de psychanalyse set up in France by Lacan. According to Certeau, mysticism would have anticipated the need to pose several problems that manifested in the course of spiritual experiences in the form of motifs, which, mutatis mutandis, would have led to the development of multiple disciplines, including, but not limited to, psychology and psychiatry.

In this review, which aims to provide a broad overview of holy madness´, it was deemed essential to mention the contribution of feminist thought, recalling what Simone de Beauvoir wrote about the mystical woman. The French philosopher writes that beneath the profile of the mystical woman often resides an erotomaniac, who, as the French Philosopher writes, «feels enhanced by the love of a superior being».

 

Henceforth, the analysis shall delve into the question posited in the title of this essay, which is divided into five brief segments. The initial four will illustrate the links between the sanctity of women and hysteria, which are expressed in various ways, depending on the communicative scenarios´. The final part shall still focus on sanctity, albeit shifting its focus from the layers of hysteria, towards the realms of delirium and dermographism. These two chapters´ on psychiatry are distinct from hysteria. The conclusions shall also include a few final considerations.

Henceforth, it shall be assumed that the elucidation presented is appropriately positioned in the contexts of the so-called devices´ - quoting Giorgio Agamben - in the contextual mechanisms that constitute the basic coordinates of the mystical and para-mystical experience, namely, the iconography, the sacred representations, the praises, the devotional texts and the preaching, which often prepared the ground for ecstasy. It is worth considering all the cases where the painted images became animated, so as to dramatize the dimension of the mystic praying in front of statues, frescoes, stained glass windows and altars.

Similarly, the analysis will refrain from recalling important proximal contexts of the mystical life, such as the effects of starvation, practiced to the bitter end by the protagonists of the life of perfection, which seemed equally noteworthy. Indeed, as demonstrated in the last century by Aldous Huxley, who studied extensively the effects of fasting in ascetic practices, the lack of sugars decreases the biological efficiency of the brain, causing vitamin deficit, modifying perceptiveness, and, in turn, leading to visions. One may also think of visions induced by hallucinogenic substances, such as cervigia, which the mystics would ingest during fasting as a basic maintenance substance, together with bread, which is, for example, the case of Saint Lutgard of Tongeren.



Cradle of the Baby Jesus, XV century, Namur, Musée des Arts Ancien



Certain communicative situations´ were deemed of interest due to the typology of the sources involved in the process under investigation, namely the dolls representing the Baby Jesus which, together with especially sophisticated cradles (pictures 1, 2, 3) were used to implement the cult of the Divine Infant, especially in women´s monasteries. These borderline sources, midway between iconography...
mehr