Deprived of Sense and Intellect
Insanity, Possession, and Diagnosis in Medieval Europe
Revealing how medieval communities distinguished insanity and possession
Description
Medieval saints were thought to be able to provide miraculous cures for a wide variety of illnesses, and about one-tenth of their miracles involved the restoration of sanity to those who had lost their minds. Deprived of Sense and Intellect explores 460 of these stories written across Latin Christendom between 1240 and 1500. The study uses the lens of critical disability studies to bridge the gap between discussions of demonic possession and naturally arising somatic conditions, treating all these narratives about disability and miraculous healing not as documentation of changes to the function of an individual person, but instead as evidence of substantial and intrusive interpersonal tensions in medieval communities.
While medieval communities assigned these tensions to a malfunction of consciousness in a single person, medieval miracle texts also reveal how the function and malfunction of consciousness was named and classified. In studying these texts, Leigh Ann Craig explores the terminology and rhetoric used to diagnose a loss of mind as either from natural causes or as an effect of demonic predation, tracing the use of Latin vocabulary in medical compendia, law, and theology. Deprived of Sense and Intellect finds that since diagnoses were difficult and frequently subject to doubt, they varied based on regional cultures of disability in northern and southern Europe, the influences on the development of community consensus in Latin Europe in the Middle Ages, and assumptions based on gender, material evidence, and self-diagnosis.
Leigh Ann Craig is Associate Professor of History at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Reviews
“In Deprived of Sense and Intellect, Leigh Ann Craig takes up material about medieval loss of mind in a manner that is at once deeply empathetic and adroit in scholarly interpretation. The resulting text both presents broader patterns for the historian to consider, as well as a series of stories whose subjects come alive in all their pain and confusion. It is a deftly conceived and beautifully composed work of scholarship that will excite readers in both medieval history and the history of disability more broadly.”
- Nancy Caciola, University of California San Diego
“In Deprived of Sense and Intellect, Leigh Ann Craig brings to light primary source material on the mentally disabled that has remained dormant in difficult to read Latin sources. She masterfully takes readers by the hand and slowly guides them through the text to discover what we can learn about perceptions and experiences. Her work allows readers a better understanding of disability in the medieval world.”
- Sara Butler, Ohio State University
“Dr. Craig’s incredibly well-researched book is a nuanced and thoughtful contribution to medieval disability studies that productively reconsiders and questions standard definitions. Building on the work of others both within and outside of disability studies, it introduces new approaches to the field, opening up exciting avenues for exploration.”
- Kisha Tracy, Fitchburg State University