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Medieval visions and contemporary hallucinations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Jerome Kroll  and
Bernard Bachrach
Jerome Kroll*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota Medical School, Department of History, University of Minnesota, USA
Bernard Bachrach
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota Medical School, Department of History, University of Minnesota, USA
*
1 Address for correspondence: Dr J. Kroll, Box 393 Mayo, University of Minnesota Hospitals, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
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Synopsis

The hallucinations of 23 patients with predominantly religious themes were compared with descriptions of visions from the Middle Ages. Although there were many points of similarity between the two classes of phenomena, none of the medieval visionaries was identified as mentally ill. The role of cultural norms in determining the attribution of mental illness, and the limitations of Euro-American criteria of psychoses, are discussed in the light of these findings.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , November 1982 , pp. 709 - 721
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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