YouvalRotman. Insanity and Sanctity in Byzantium: The Ambiguity of Religious Experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016. 256 pp., $39.95, ISBN 978674057616.

CarolynMerchant. Autonomous nature: Problems of prediction and control from ancient times to the scientific revolution. New York, NY: Routledge, 2016. 196 pp. $43.95 (paper). ISBN 9781138931008.

“…For one example, I was stimulated by his characterization of Ludwig Wittgenstein's personal behavior and his family relations to discover Alexander Waugh's (2009) In this interdisciplinary study, social historian Youval Rotman draws from a range of theoretical work in history, psychology, and religious studies to examine two questions in light of sources from Late Antiquity and Byzantium: "Where do we draw the line between normal and abnormal behavior? What is the place of individual abnormal behavior in the social fabric especially in cases when the individuals behavior disturbs the social?"…”