Mind and Madness in Ancient Greece PDF Download

Author: Bennett Simon
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Author: Yulia Ustinova
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351581260
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 459

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Book Description
‘Our greatest blessings come to us by way of mania, provided it is given us by divine gift,’ – says Socrates in Plato’s Phaedrus. Certain forms of alteration of consciousness, considered to be inspired by supernatural forces, were actively sought in ancient Greece. Divine mania comprises a fascinating array of diverse experiences: numerous initiates underwent some kind of alteration of consciousness during mystery rites; sacred officials and inquirers attained revelations in major oracular centres; possession states were actively sought; finally, some thinkers, such as Pythagoras and Socrates, probably practiced manipulation of consciousness. These experiences, which could be voluntary or involuntary, intense or mild, were interpreted as an invasive divine power within one’s mind, or illumination granted by a super-human being. Greece was unique in its attitude to alteration of consciousness. From the perspective of individual and public freedom, the prominent position of the divine mania in Greek society reflects its acceptance of the inborn human proclivity to experience alteration of consciousness, interpreted in positive terms as god-sent. These mental states were treated with cautious respect, and in contrast to the majority of complex societies, ancient and modern, were never suppressed or pushed to the cultural and social periphery.

Author: Marke Ahonen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3319034316
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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This book offers a comprehensive study of the views of ancient philosophers on mental disorders. Relying on the original Greek and Latin textual sources, the author describes and analyses how the ancient philosophers explained mental illness and its symptoms, including hallucinations, delusions, strange fears and inappropriate moods and how they accounted for the respective roles of body and mind in such disorders. Also considered are ethical questions relating to mental illness, approaches to treatment and the position of mentally ill people in societies of the times. The volume opens with a historical overview that examines ancient medical accounts of mental illness, from Hippocrates' famous Sacred Disease to late antiquity medical authors. Separate chapters interpret in detail the writings of Plato, Aristotle, Galen and the Stoics and a final chapter summarises the views of various strains of Scepticism, the Epicurean school and the Middle and Neo-Platonists. Offering an important and useful contribution to the study of ancient philosophy, psychology and medicine. This volume sheds new light on the history of mental illness and presents a new angle on ancient philosophical psychology.

Author: Chiara Thumiger
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107176018
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
The first substantial history of psychological thought in Classical Greek medicine, showing the relevance of ancient ideas to modern debates.

Author: Allan V. Horwitz
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 019090786X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
"Between Sanity and Madness: Mental Illness from Homer to Neuroscience traces the extensive array of answers that various groups have provided to questions about the nature of mental illness and its boundaries with sanity. What distinguishes mental illnesses from other sorts of devalued conditions and from normality? Should medical, religious, psychological, legal, or no authority at all respond to the mentally ill? Why do some people become mad? What treatments might help them recover? Despite general agreement across societies regarding definitions about the pole of madness, huge disparities exist on where dividing lines should be placed between it and sanity and even if there is any clear demarcation at all. Various groups have provided answers to these puzzles that are both widely divergent and surprisingly similar to current understandings"--

Author: Robin Osborne
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521837699
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 414

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Book Description
A collection of innovative essays on major topics in ancient Greece and Rome, first published in 2004.

Author: Ruth Padel
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691037660
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Explores Greek conceptions of human innerness and the way in which Greek tragedy shaped European notions of mind and self.

Author: Ruth Padel
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780691025889
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Madness is central to Western tragedy in all epochs, but we find the origins of this centrality in early Greece: in Homeric insight into the "damage a damaged mind can do." Greece, and especially tragedy, gave the West its permanent perception of madness as violent and damaging. Drawing on her deep knowledge of anthropology, psychoanalysis, Shakespeare, and the history of madness, as well as of Greek language and literature, Ruth Padel probes the Greek language of madness, which is fundamental to tragedy: translating, making it reader-friendly to nonspecialists, and showing how Greek images continued through medieval and Renaissance societies into a "rough tragic grammar" of madness in the modern period.

Author: Erik Nis Ostenfeld
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Author: Agnes Carr Vaughan
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781104144661
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.