A mad yearning for solitude: Timon the Misanthrope and his relevance to the study of ancient psychopathology.

IF 0.3 3区 哲学 Q4 HISTORY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES History of Psychiatry Pub Date : 2023-06-01 DOI:10.1177/0957154X231157187
Nadine Metzger
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Abstract

Ancient Greek and Latin medical authors considered a flight into solitude a compelling sign of mental disturbance, frequently described as misanthropia, a word fraught with meaning beyond the medical discourse. The fictionalised character Timon of Athens, the quintessential misanthrope, can shed light on ancient cultural concepts of self-imposed isolation from human contact. To cope with the sense of unease this deviant behaviour induced, misanthropia was explained as 'madness', ridiculed in various genres of humour, morally condemned in philosophy, and ultimately demonized in Christian cosmology. These various attempts at containment echo in the medical works of the age, making it impossible to comprehend the concept of misanthropia in ancient medicine without taking full account of the cultural context.

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对孤独的疯狂向往:厌世者丁满及其与古代精神病理学研究的关联。
古希腊和拉丁医学作家认为遁入孤独是一种令人信服的精神障碍迹象,经常被描述为厌世症,这个词充满了医学话语之外的含义。雅典的小说人物丁满(Timon)是典型的厌世者,他可以揭示古代文化中自我隔离与人类接触的概念。为了应对这种越轨行为引发的不安,厌世症被解释为“疯狂”,在各种幽默中受到嘲笑,在哲学上受到道德谴责,最终在基督教宇宙学中被妖魔化。这些不同的遏制尝试在这个时代的医学作品中得到了呼应,如果不充分考虑文化背景,就不可能理解古代医学中的厌世症概念。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
1.10
自引率
16.70%
发文量
34
期刊介绍: History of Psychiatry publishes research articles, analysis and information across the entire field of the history of mental illness and the forms of medicine, psychiatry, cultural response and social policy which have evolved to understand and treat it. It covers all periods of history up to the present day, and all nations and cultures.
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