Witch Hunting in Southwestern Germany, 1562-1684

Midelfort, H. C. Erik

doi:10.1515/9780804766470

Cited by 91 publications

(23 citation statements)

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“…Archival studies of legal, ecclesiastical, and civil records have also thrown some light on such issues as the modal witchcraft suspect and the dynamics of witchcraft accusations. The typical accused witch was not a mentally ill person but an impoverished woman with a sharp tongue and a bad temper; in some areas the modal suspect was also old and unmarried (Lamer, 1981;Macfarlane, 1970;Midelfort, 1972;Monter, 1976;Thomas, 1971). 2 In places that suffered large-scale witch panics, however, this characteristic identity could fall by the wayside, and almost anyone could be susceptible to accusation (Henningsen, 1980;Midelfort, 1972).…”

Section: Alternative Views From Regent Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The last, but by no means least, set of objections comes from critics who have taken issue with the psychopathologists' general orientation to history and society (Connor, 1975;Kirsch, 1978Kirsch, ,1980Kroll, 1973;Midelfort, 1972;Neugebauer, 1979;Pattison, 1977;Rosen, 1968;Russell, 1972;Schoeneman, 1977;Spanos, 1978;Szasz, 1970), These commentators find that a model that emphasizes intrapsyc'hic processes and minimizes social, historical, political, and economic variables is inadequate in representing the complexity of witch hunts. Furthermore, most early psychiatric historians adopted an ethnocentric, "Whig" approach to the history of science (Butterfield, 1931); this orientation assumes present conceptions of reality to be immutably correct and evaluates past paradigms and actions in this light.…”

Section: An Intrapsychic and "Whiggish" Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A second set of investigators has adapted anthropological functionalism and structuralism in order to study local patterns of witch hunting. The resulting analyses, many of which also trace the history of demonological ideas, usually address the issues of modal suspects and typical patterns of accusation (Boyer & Nissenbaum, 1974;Henningsen, 1980;Lamer, 1981;Macfarlane, 1970;Midelfort, 1972;Monter, 1976;Thomas, 1971).…”

Section: Prevailing Viewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This holds true for concepts from psychiatry and abnormal psychology as well. Those few investigators who have acknowledged the existence of psychiatric interpretations have generally dismissed them as insufficient to an understanding of the witch hunts (e.g., Midelfort, 1972;Russell, 1972) 3 or used them with extreme caution in discussing isolated case histories (Henningsen, 1980).…”

Section: Prevailing Viewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The mentally ill witch in textbooks of abnormal psychology: Current status and implications of a fallacy.

Schoeneman¹

1984

Professional Psychology: Research and Practice

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The psychopathological interpretation of demonology, witchcraft, and possession states that demonology replaced psychiatric knowledge and practice in the Middle Ages and that the mentally ill were subsequently misidentified as witches and demoniacs. This model, promulgated by traditional histories of psychiatry, has been discredited, yet it seems to appear frequently in textbooks of abnormal psychology. The investigation reported here examined 20 such textbooks published between 1978 and 1981 to delineate the scope and character of this problem. Almost all authors endorsed at least one aspect of the psychopathological interpretation, and only three books included contradictory opinions. Textbooks that presented the psychiatric model seem to have derived it primarily from the work of Gregory Zilboorg, and there is also evidence of unreferenced internal borrowing among textbooks. Authors generally ignored prominent historical and anthropological research on witchcraft and possession; in addition, they gave minimal attention both to more recent, socioculturally oriented histories of psychiatry and to critiques of the older psychiatric paradigm. This article discusses possible reasons for these results and concludes that they are at least partly due to clinical psychologists' identification with psychiatrists' efforts at selfvalidation and self-justification.

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Section: Alternative Views From Regent Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: An Intrapsychic and "Whiggish" Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Prevailing Viewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Prevailing Viewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The mentally ill witch in textbooks of abnormal psychology: Current status and implications of a fallacy.

Schoeneman¹

1984

Professional Psychology: Research and Practice

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“…A psychiatric perspective is not the only frame of reference for studying witchcraft. Recent work carried out by historians (Baroja, 1964;Boyer & Nissenbaum, 1974;Cohn, 1975;Kieckhefer, 1976;Macfarlane, 1970;Midelfort, 1972;J. B. Russell, 1972;Thomas, 1971) and by social anthropologists (Crawford, 1967;Douglas, 1970;Evans-Pritchard, 1937;Mair, 1699) has converged on a frame of reference that stresses the crucial roles of situational, demographic, and economic variables (as opposed to intrapsychic dynamics) in understanding witchcraft phenomena.…”

Section: Failure To Consider Situational Influences On Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Witchcraft in histories of psychiatry: A critical analysis and an alternative conceptualization.

Spaños

1978

Psychological Bulletin

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Histories of psychiatry have typically contended that those accused of being witches during the late medieval -early modern period were mentally disturbed. More specifically, they have argued that (a) a great upsurge in mental disorder occurred in the 15th century, (b) the mentally ill were considered to be witches, and (c) witches were obviously mentally disturbed because they confessed to bizarre and impossible happenings, exhibited localized analgesia, and were sometimes insensitive to torture. These contentions are examined and found wanting. The overriding sociopolitical factors that produced and sustained witch persecutions are outlined. Witch accusations, confessions, and purported insensitivity are conceptualized in terms consonant with modern social-learning and socialrole theories.The emergence of psychiatry as a distinct medical discipline during the 19th century was associated with "mental illness" interpretations of many historical situations. This article is concerned with such interpretations of western European witchcraft. Many of the best known names in 19th and early 20th century psychiatry (

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A history of madness in sixteenth-century Germany

Mora

2000

J. Hist. Behav. Sci.

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Witch Hunting in Southwestern Germany, 1562-1684

Cited by 91 publications

References 0 publications

The mentally ill witch in textbooks of abnormal psychology: Current status and implications of a fallacy.

The mentally ill witch in textbooks of abnormal psychology: Current status and implications of a fallacy.

Witchcraft in histories of psychiatry: A critical analysis and an alternative conceptualization.

A history of madness in sixteenth-century Germany

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