Socrates Views On Madness In The Ancient World
This week we read pieces about madness in the ancient world, and how different cultures viewed it. The first piece was a dialogue of Socrates from Plato’s Phaedrus, the second speech. In the dialogue Socrates is speaking to young Phaedrus about love, sanity, and madness. His main point is the idea that it is acceptable to become mad, and that, though love seems strange and silly, it is a divine gift that brings the spirit ever higher towards the gods after death. “Neither human wisdom nor divine inspiration can confer upon man any greater blessing than this.” (256b) He also speaks heavily about the human soul, and how the more honorable, in love, or philosophical we are in life the more likely we are to “grow our wings” and fly towards the
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Before it seems to be more of any behavior that seems outside the norm, as opposed to modern day where madness is an affliction.
The second source was an examination on madness in ancient cultures by Andrew Scull. He discusses hippocratic healing, different types of common madness in the past such as hysteria, battle madness, and possession. He also discusses how little some cultures, such as China’s before the 20th century, seemed to have little to none actual literature or practices when it came to mental illness. There is an interesting contrast culture wise, in where each viewed where the madness comes from.
Many greeks saw its origins from the divine, or evil spirits. To cure it they would have to call upon the gods, as shown in this passage. “If a patient imitate a goat, if he roar, or suffer convulsions on the right side, they say that the Mother of the Gods is to blame. If he utter a piercing and loud cry, they liken him to a horse and blame Poseidon…’ or they summon Apollo, Ares, Hecate, the Heroes – a whole list of menacing figures”. (32) The hippocratics see madness as natural, being an imbalance of the humors that could be fixed. “...it appears to me to be nowise more divine nor more sacred than other diseases, but has a natural cause”. (32) Other ancient cultures viewed madness as being caused by evil spirits, vapors from the womb, or simply as another
Before it seems to be more of any behavior that seems outside the norm, as opposed to modern day where madness is an affliction.
The second source was an examination on madness in ancient cultures by Andrew Scull. He discusses hippocratic healing, different types of common madness in the past such as hysteria, battle madness, and possession. He also discusses how little some cultures, such as China’s before the 20th century, seemed to have little to none actual literature or practices when it came to mental illness. There is an interesting contrast culture wise, in where each viewed where the madness comes from.
Many greeks saw its origins from the divine, or evil spirits. To cure it they would have to call upon the gods, as shown in this passage. “If a patient imitate a goat, if he roar, or suffer convulsions on the right side, they say that the Mother of the Gods is to blame. If he utter a piercing and loud cry, they liken him to a horse and blame Poseidon…’ or they summon Apollo, Ares, Hecate, the Heroes – a whole list of menacing figures”. (32) The hippocratics see madness as natural, being an imbalance of the humors that could be fixed. “...it appears to me to be nowise more divine nor more sacred than other diseases, but has a natural cause”. (32) Other ancient cultures viewed madness as being caused by evil spirits, vapors from the womb, or simply as another