Sacerdotes, apropiación del discurso médico y experiencia mística en la Francia del siglo XIX.
Andrea Graus
Historia, Ciencias, Saude--Manguinhos April 1, 2021 DOI: 10.1590/s0104-59702021000200007 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | French theologians and priests, medical and theological manuals, and reports on three supposed female mystics with stigmata |
| Keywords | Humans Dissent and disputes Catholicism Clergy France Female |
| Key points | Argues that nineteenth-century French clergy appropriated psychiatric terminology to separate "authentic" mystical experience from feigned or "deviant" forms, using the hysteria-versus-saintliness opposition found in medical and theological manuals and priestly reports on three female stigmatics to define the limits of church-approved religious experience. |
Abstract
This article explores the appropriation of psychiatric terminology by French theologians and priests, within the context of the pathologizations of religion in the nineteenth century. This appropriation allowed the clergy to differentiate "authentic" mystical experience from feigned or "deviant" ones. Firstly, it analyzes medical and theological manuals that sought to create an opposition between hysteria and saintliness, which was useful from the ecclesiastical point of view. Secondly, it presents the reports of three priests on supposed female mystics with stigmata. It concludes that the appropriation of medical rhetoric by the clergy could be used to define the limits of religious experience approved by the Catholic church.