Witchcraft belief

Once the alleged facts of witchcraft are accepted, it becomes necessary to locate, identify, and eliminate the witches responsible for it. One of the most terrifying features of the general witchcraft belief was the fact, Christina Hole reminds us, that no one knew for certain who was, or was not, a witch. The same may be said for our present situation No one knows for certain who is, or is not, mentally ill. Hence, the former need for witch-finders, witch-prickers, and inquisitors, and the present need for psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers. 

Introduces a Variety of Western Esoteric Belief Systems, Such As Gnosticism, Alchemy, and Theosophy, and the Cults That Practice These Belief Systems. Focuses on Witchcraft Activities and Their Prevalence in Western Society From the 13th Century to the Present. Concludes with a Discussion of Methodological and Theoretical Approaches to the Study of the Occult and the Causes for Its Recent Resurgence in the United States and Europe... 

Barry, Jonathan, Introduction Keith Thomas and the Problem of Witchcraft , in Jonathan Barry, Marianne Hester, and Gareth Roberts (eds.), Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe Studies in Culture and Belief (Cambridge, 1996), 1—45. 

DANO (Damage) Brujeria (witchcraft), mal puesto (set evil), maldad (wickedness), hechizo (bewitchment), posesidn (possession). Unspecific (16.17%) Cultural belief in witchcraft able to produce discomfort, injury, illness or damage to a victim of natural or supernatural procedures. 

The primary difficulty in formulating any definition of mental aberrance in general and schizophrenia in particular is that any such definition will necessarily reflect the cultural bias out of which it is formed. Behavior considered abnormal or pathological in one culture may be quite congruent with the norms of another. Belief in witchcraft might be indicative of paranoid delusion in one culture but might represent a prevailing view in another. 

Stephens, Walter. Demon Lovers Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief(CVsivc go-. University of Chicago Press, 2002). 

My thesis regarding the relations between organic and mental illness thus both resembles and differs from Weyer s regarding the relations between natural and demonic illness. It resembles Weyer s in so tar as he maintains that merely because physicians cannot cure a disease, they should not inter from this that the disease is due to witchcraft. It differs from his in so tar as he proclaims his belief in witchcraft as a cause of illness and protests only that his colleagues make this diagnosis more often than they should. I hold that, like witchcraft, mental illness is a misconception which can " cause neither bodily illness nor crime. 

I have already suggested, and will presently document in greater detail, how the belief in witchcraft gave way to the belief in mental illness and how the practices of the inquisitors were superseded by those of the institutional psychiatrists. The ritual sacrifice of the heretic, the auto-da-fe, was thus supplemented by the ritual sacrifice of the madman, the commitment of the insane. 

Philippe Pinel (1745-1826) believed that witches were mentally sick individuals but he did not dwell on this subject. In his Treatise on Insanity (1801), he asserts, without discussion or demonstration, that In a word, demoniacs of all description are to be classed either with maniacs or melancholics. And he dismisses Weyer as a victim of the belief in witchcraft The credit attached to the... 

It is consistent with the scapegoat theory of witchcraft, but not with the psychopathological theory of it, that the individuals persecuted as witches were often helpless and poor and that, in addition to witches, Jews, heretics of all sorts, Protestants, and scientists whose opinions threatened Church dogma, were also victimized by the Inquisition. In short, whereas psychiatric theory relates the belief in witchcraft and the persecution of witches to the mental diseases supposedly harbored by the witches, the scapegoat theory relates them to the specific conditions of the society in which such beliefs and practices occurred. Because of these different perspectives, psychiatric investigations of witchcraft concentrate on the witches and ignore the witch-hunters, while nonpsychiatric investigations of it reverse this focus. ... 

Perhaps the best way to understand the mythical character of certain beliefs is to examine their history. Why did medieval man choose to believe in witchcraft and seek the amelioration of his society in the compulsory salvation of witches Why does modem man choose to believe in the myth of mental illness and seek the amelioration of his society in the compulsory treatment of mental patients In each of these mass movements we are faced with two interlocking phenomena a guiding myth (of witchcraft and of mental illness), and a powerful social institution (the Inquisition and Institutional Psychiatry) the former provides the ideological justification, the latter, the practical means for social action. Much of what I have said so far in this book, and particularly in Chapter 4, was an effort to answer the questions posed above. Since, in the discussion heretofore, my emphasis has been on institutional practices rather than on ideological (mythological) justifications, I shall concentrate, in this chapter, on what men believe and the imagery they use to express their belief, rather than on what they ostensibly seek and the means they employ to achieve it. 

Although the belief in witchcraft was widespread during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, a careful reading of the Malleus suggests that many were skeptical about the evils attributed to witches, and critical of the methods used by the inquisitors. There is, however, no direct evidence that men doubted the reality of witchcraft or the existence of witches. Open expression of such doubt would, of course, have been tantamount to a self-imposed death sentence for heresy. 

The second section of Part I of the Malleus is entitled Whether it be a Heresy to Maintain that Witches Exist. The peculiarly inverted phrasing of this sentence should be noted. Sprenger and Kramer ponder whether the belief in witchcraft is a mistake—only to conclude that to disbelieve it is a grave sin. The question arises, they ask, whether people who hold that witches do not exist are to be regarded as notorious heretics. . They answer yes. This is as if modern psychiatrists were to ask whether mental patients exist, and would answer that to believe otherwise is a serious error and a grave offense against the psychiatric profession. Since I have dubbed mental illness a myth, precisely this argument has been advanced by several psychiatrists critical of my views. ... 

We may wonder how learned men and the public alike could believe such nonsense, flagrantly contradicted by observations easily made among both men and animals. This human tendency to embrace collective error—especially error that threatens harm and commands specific protective action—seems to be an integral part of man s social nature. Thus, when man is faced with important mass-beliefs—like that in witchcraft, the harmfulness of masturbation, or mental illness—he is more interested in preserving popular explanations which tend to consolidate the group than in making accurate observations which tend to divide it. This is why most men most of the time attend only to those of their observations that confirm the accepted theories of their age, and reject those that refute them. ... 

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