Michelet, Jules

Michelet, Jules. La Sociere.. . . Paris, 1862 and 1903 Satanism and Witchcraft A Study in Medeival Superstition. New York Citadel, 1939. 

Many people today believe that coffee helps them sober up after drinking too much alcohol. This belief, actually, is far from new, as it is at least as old as 17th-century Western Europe. At that time a book on beverages noted that coffee sobers you up instantaneously, or in any event sobers up those who are not fully intoxicated (Schivelbusch, 1992, p. 35). Coffee was regarded as an ideal beverage. In the 19th century the poet-historian Jules Michelet praised coffee because it heightens purity and lucidity (Schivelbusch, 1992, p. 35). 

The psychopathological theory of witchcraft is, as we have seen, not the only available or possible explanation of the witch-hunts. The view that witches were society s scapegoats was held by Reginald Scot four hundred years ago, was articulated into a comprehensive and persuasive explanation by Jules Michelet more than one hundred years ago, and was massively documented from original sources by Henry Charles Lea more than fifty years ago. Why then do institutional psychiatrists and psychiatric historians ignore this competing explanation, and prefer instead the view that witches were madwomen An effort to answer this question will help to clarify not only the practical import of these two theories of the witch-craze, but also the nature of Institutional Psychiatry as a modern mass movement. 

Satanism and Witchcraft by Jules Michelet. New York, Citadel, 1965. Reprinted by [>ermission of Citadel Press, Inc. 

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