Historical Testimony of Female Disability: The Neurological Impairment of Teresa de Ávila

The objective of this chapter is to study Libro de la vida (The Book of Her Life), the personal testimony of Teresa de Avila (1515-1582), a nun suffering neurological disorders, possibly epilepsy, in order to demonstrate how the author creates a textual resistance to external labelling and social segregation. In her autobiography, Teresa explains her frequent physical problems in relation to mystical graces, involuntary and uncontrollable raptures, beatific and devilish visions, hearing of voices and prophetic messages. In a period in which both the experience of epilepsy and of having visions were stigmatized and suspected of devilish intervention in women weaken body and soul, Teresa successfully defends her right to explain her own body occurrences contravening the accepted explanations.