The Mystical Element of Religion, as studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and her friends, Volume 2 (of 2)Hügel, Friedrich, Freiherr von
Religion
The Mystical Element of Religion, as studied in Saint Catherine of Genoa and her friends, Volume 2 (of 2)
Hügel, Friedrich, Freiherr von
Catherine, of Genoa, Saint, 1447-1510
Here we have, I think, the only two merely factual, unsuggestive, and
hence simply delusive, impressions really experienced by herself and
recorded in the _Vita_, a book whose very eagerness to discover things
of this kind and readiness to take them as directly supernatural is a
guarantee that no other marked instances of the kind have been omitted
or suppressed. And these two impressions both take place within a week
of her death, and respectively four days before, and two days after,
the first clear case of organic disease or lesion to be found anywhere
in the life.
III. CATHERINE’S PSYCHO-PHYSICAL CONDITION, ITS LIKENESS AND UNLIKENESS
TO HYSTERIA.
Only by a quite unfair magnifying or multiplying of the two incidents
just described could we come to hold, with Mr. Baring-Gould, that
Catherine was simply a sufferer from hysteria, and that the Roman
Church did well to canonize her on the ground of her having, in spite
of this malady, managed to achieve much useful work amongst the sick
and poor.[24] Here we shall do well to consider three groups of facts.
1. _Misapprehensions as to hysteria._
The first group gives the reasons why we should try and get rid of the
terror and horror still so often felt in connection with the very name
of this malady. This now quite demonstrably excessive, indeed largely
mythical, connotation of the term springs from four causes.
First, the very name still tends to suggest, as the causes or
conditions of the malady, things fit only for discussion in medical
reviews. But then, ever since 1855, all limitation to, or special
connection with, anything peculiarly female, or indeed generally
sexual, has been increasingly shown to be false, until now no serious
authority on the matter can be found to espouse the old view. The
malady is now well known to attack men as well as women, and to have no
special relation to things of sex at all.[25]
Next, probably as a consequence from the initial error, this disorder
was supposed to predominantly come from, or to lead to, moral impurity,
or at least to be ordinarily accompanied by strong erotic propensions.
But here the now carefully observed facts are imperatively hostile:
of the 120 living cases most carefully studied by Prof. Janet, only
four showed the predominance of any such tendencies, a proportion
undoubtedly not above the percentage to be found amongst non-hysterical
persons.[26]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account