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The Oracle of Trophonius: A Kind of Shock Treatment Associated with Sensory Deprivation in Ancient Greece

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

D. Kouretas
D. Kouretas*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Athens University Medical School
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Extract

The ancient Greeks likened people who withdrew into themselves, were slow, and had a distant and frowning expression, to those who had consulted the holy oracle of Trophonius in Lebadeia about what was to happen to them in the future. King Croesus of Lydia consulted it about his expedition against the Persians (Herodotus I), Mardonius about his war against the Athenians (Herodotus VIII), the Thebans in the war against the Spartans (Pausanias IV) before the battle of Leuctra. Others consulted the oracle about their spiritual and mental state. There is evidence that among them were men who were concerned with psychological or metaphysical problems, a preoccupation which sometimes indicates the presence of psychological disorder. Timarchus, to whom we shall refer later, belongs to this category.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 113 , Issue 505 , December 1967 , pp. 1441 - 1446
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1967 

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