The Persistence in Late Antiquity of Medico-Philosophical Psychic Therapy

Abstract

Drawing on recent scholarship on mental health in the ancient world, it is argued that the previously puzzling final treatise that John Chrysostom sent to his supporters from exile is a therapeutic medico-philosophical treatise for the sick soul that draws on a well-established tradition within Hellenistic and imperial medicine and philosophy. Viewed in this light, it is a natural accompaniment to two other works written by him at this time, the treatise Quod nemo laeditur, and the final letter to Olympias. It is argued that all three works emerge from a holistic approach to the health of the human soul that is in continuity with Galen and his predecessors, an approach embraced by John early in his ministry.

Food, Virtue, and the Shaping of Early Christianity

“…59 According to Wendy Mayer, John's own treatises and homilies are constructed as nonfigurative therapies for their readers. 60 Disease, in Galenic medicine, is frequently the result of an imbalance in one of the humors. The appropriate treatment is to apply a food or drug that will "introduce the opposite [quality] to what is in excess to the point where you bring the part into balance and accord with nature."…”

Domestic and public violence in Chrysostom’s community

“…By contrast, the face was regarded as the most honourable part of one's body. Mayer (2015a;2015b) warns us to be careful not to interpret all these descriptions in Chrysostom's homilies too literal. She believes that one should rather look at Chrysostom as a medico-philosophical psychic therapist who is adopting the protreptic model to produce good or virtuous citizens.…”

A historical perspective on mental health: Proposal for a dialogue between history and psychology.

“…SeeThumiger (2016).13 Galen's gradualist view emerges clearly in the first book of his treatise Matters of Health. On his gradualist view, seeLewis, Thumiger, and van der Eijk (2017).14Mayer (2015).15 Apatheia was defined as "health of the soul" ( '␥ε ´␣ ˜) by Evagrius Ponticus in Praktikos 56 (SC 171: 630). Cf.…”