Early science and medicine

Demonic possessions and mental illness: discussion of selected cases in late medieval hagiographical literature.

Early science and medicine 2014 Carlos Espí Forcén, Fernando Espí Forcén

During the Middle Ages, demonic possession constituted an explanation for an erratic behavior in society. Exorcism was the treatment generally applied to demoniacs and seems to have caused some alleviation in the suffering of mentally distressed people. We have selected and analyzed some cases of demonic possession from thirteenth-century hagiographical literature. In the description of...