Body: | Phantasmata or Illusions and Fanaticisms
Richard Robert Madden
1857 AD
Click to View
Click to View See also: History of Psychiatry homepage
Introduction:
In 1857 AD, Richard Robert Madden observed many historic cases of a
kind of mass hysteria. What is interesting about this phenomena, is that it
is clearly induced by freewill choices of the minds of a large number of
people at the same time. This proves that such mass delusions and
hallucinations are not caused by the body, but the mind. Madden understood
that if the mind of a single person could induce insanity, so could it
happen on a mass scale: "It is with individuals as with nations, they are
controlled and restrained by the same influences, or corrupted and
perverted by the same wild impulses of passion . . . Hallucinations of
various kinds ensue; and imagination dominated by disease will eventually
give a being, shape and form, 'a local habitation, and a name', to fixed
ideas and chimeras which are the productions of the brain." (Phantasmata or
Illusions and Fanaticisms, Richard Robert Madden, 1857 AD)
"The history of psychiatry, concerned with the care and treatment of
patients and advancement of knowledge of mental disease, reflects society's
relation and reaction to its insane. It has less to say about the social,
cultural and economic factors which may produce circumstances favourable to
the rise and spread of mental illness through groups, communities and even
nations. Such epidemics of insanity are usually not recognised for what
they are when they occur (comparable perhaps to the lack of insight shown
by patients) but are diagnosed in retrospect and so become the province of
the social historian. Whether these outbreaks manifest themselves in
abnormal behaviour or delusional beliefs with or without actions flowing
from them, they furnish interesting points of comparison with mental
illness in individuals : 'The madness of the various forms of fanaticism is
not confined to individuals, it extends to communities . . .' so that study
of the one may lead to better understanding and prevention of the other.
Dugald Stewart [q.v.] recorded frankly his own experience that 'the
incoherent ravings and frantic gestures of a madman have a singularly
painful effect in unsettling and deranging the thoughts of others' and
suggested physicians might with advantage give more attention to the
influence of insane on sane mind in order to elucidate 'whether certain
kinds of insanity have not a contagious tendency'. J. F. K. Hecker in his
account of 'the dancing mania' went further and suggested that study of
epidemic insanity would 'afford a deep insight into the workings of the
human mind in a state of society', that is into the group mind (The
epidemics of the middle ages, 1846, translated by B. G. Babington). But
because of the complex field of observation which presents itself when
historical events are viewed through psychiatric eyes, most accounts have
been anecdotal rather than analytical: 'Popular delusions began so early,
spread so widely, and have lasted so long' wrote Charles Mackay, 'that
instead of two or three volumes, fifty would scarcely suffice to detail
their history . . . in the great and awful book of human folly which yet
remains to be written . . . a mere list of ['religious manias'] would alone
be sufficient to occupy a volume' (Memoirs of extraordinary popular
delusions, 1841, 3 vols.). Like mental illness they present in all degrees
of severity from the mildest and most harmless outbreaks of 'hysterics'
like dancing, jumping, shaking, trembling and barking, from short lived
episodes of anxiety or panic in a multitude provoked by spread of a
delusional conviction such as that the end of the world is imminent, to the
most vicious, violent and prolonged cruelties and persecutions induced by
mass delusions which abound in the histories of nations and religious
movements. Madden combined an interest in mental aberration (he also wrote
The infirmities of genius, 1833, 2 vols.) with a philanthropic concern for
the welfare of the underprivileged and maltreated whether they were
Jamaican negroes, Australian aborigines or starving Irish peasantry. This
led him to undertake this historicosociological study 'of some of the
principal Epidemic Disorders of the Mind, which have formerly prevailed in
Europe' in order to determine the circumstances under which such epidemics
arose, and especially to what extent they were dependent on ignorance,
superstition and the backwardness of the masses, as 'It is said that, "man
ignorant and uncivilised, is a ferocious, sensual, and superstitious
savage" '. But contrary to what was generally believed Madden found that
'The greatest fanaticisms this world ever saw have not originated with the
poor, the unenlightened and uneducated; they have originated with the
educated classes, with those who do not labour manually for their bread';
and behind the veneer of intellect and education he saw 'a great deal of
savagery in the heart's core of civilisation'. This made him ask, almost as
if he had prevision of the events of the twentieth century : 'have we such
sure grounds for our considence in its [nineteenth century] civilisation
that no fears may be entertained of any recurrence of those bewilderments
of reason, widely spread, under which multitudes of people laboured in "the
dark ages"?'" (300 years of Psychiatry, Richard Hunter, 1963, p 1039)
Phantasmata or Illusions and Fanaticisms, Richard Robert Madden, 1857 AD
Richard Robert Madden (1798-1886)
F R C S, surgeon, man of letters, philanthropist
Phantasmata or illusions and fanaticisms of protean forms productive of
great evils, 1857 London, Newby 2 vols Vol. I, pp. v-viii, x-xi, 7-8
EPIDEMIC INSANITY : MASS PSYCHOLOGY
The subject of this work has largely to do with the failings and
infirmities and passions of mankind and their accompanying disorders of the
imagination, for to these sources must we attribute the epidemic
fanaticisms which we meet with in history and elsewhere, simulating at one
time an ardent zeal for religion, at another a glowing love of liberty, now
a laudable ambition to rise in the world, to attain to power, to obtain
wealth, to add field to field, possession to possession, dominion to
dominion; anon a strong wish and settled purpose to dominate over others,
to master their wills, to invade their rights, to trample down their
inferior intelligence, weaker powers, or feebler energies of mind or body.
Striking illustrations will be found in these pages of epidemic
fanaticisms, which bring men insensibly from morbid conditions of mind into
monomaniacal states of being, into the practice of delusion, and eventually
into familiar acquaintance with illusions and hallucinations of a sense or
of all the senses.
We are accustomed to regard passing events of an extraordinary character
which disturb society, as indications of rather too much political
excitement or polemical heat, sectarian strife, competition in trade,
monopoly in patronage and preferments, an insufficient police force, an
inadequate representation, too little rationalism in religion, or reverence
for law, or devotion to material interests, or knowledge of the true
principles of political economy.
We find it saves the trouble of thinking deeply, to fall into this way of
viewing remarkable outbreaks of popular phrenzy like those of the Reign of
Terror of the French Revolution, in the years 1792 and 1793 : outbreaks of
intolerance and immanity in Spain and Portugal in the times of the
Inquisition: outbreaks of barbarity in England and Scotland and the New
England States of America, in the proceedings against witches; outbreaks of
superstition in various countries in regard to new revelations of pseudo
saints, pseudo 'spiritualists', pseudo seers of mesmerism claiming
prophetic gifts .. .
The madness of the various forms of fanaticism is not confined to
individuals, it extends to communities, at times and intervals more or less
widely separated, and seizes on the minds of nations at periods, of greater
intervening distances, that have been terminated by great wars, or other
grievous public calamities. Such fanaticisms have all the distinguishing
characteristics of epidemic mental disorders. They are manifested in a
ferocious spirit of intolerance, or a fierce and reckless zeal for party
interests, or the triumph of extreme political opinions shaped or
influenced by some evil passion or selfish motive . . . or in an inordinate
ambition and imperial pride, lust of power, and military renown, and
territorial aggrandizement on the part of mighty states; or in a furious
impulse to acts of violence and injustice, brutal and sanguinary on the
part of great numbers of people .. .
It is with individuals as with nations, they are controlled and restrained
by the same influences, or corrupted and perverted by the same wild
impulses of passion . . . Hallucinations of various kinds ensue; and
imagination dominated by disease will eventually give a being, shape and
form, 'a local habitation, and a name', to fixed ideas and chimeras which
are the productions of the brain . . . In the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th
centuries, various commotions which affected the moral sentiments, and the
intellectual powers of a considerable number of persons, took place in the
principal countries of Europe, in various communities; and signally in the
convents of several of the religious orders in France, Spain, and Germany.
These disturbances seemed to be of a contagious character, and they
prevailed epidemically in particular localities at the same period.
The subject is one of deep interest, and not without its salutary teachings
and warnings, for fanaticism, fixed ideas, and delusions of all sorts in
our own times : though civilization has advanced, and many branches of
learning and physical science have made rapid strides of improvement, and
dispelled some of the darkest clouds which obscured the intellect and
bewildered the reason of vast numbers of people in former ages. The signal
advancement especially of medical science directed to the pursuits of
physiology and pathology, in connexion with the study of cerebral disease,
has contributed largely to this important result. But manifest as the
progress of civilization has been, particularly in the last century and a
half, it is very doubtful, if the progress of enlightenment among the
masses of any country in Europe, has been of so genuine a character as may
be commonly imagined; or if the same predisposing causes were again to come
into operation - namely, public calamities on a large scale, civil
commotions, protracted war, famine, pestilence, religious strife,
fanaticism, and oppression - they might not produce epidemic mental
disorders, as terrible as any which have occurred in past times under the
names of Theomania, Demonolatria and Demonopathy, including all the forms
of mental illusions connected with witchcraft, communication with spirits,
divination, and diabolical possession. The prevailing ideas of modern
times, the predominant influences of their politics, polemics, forms of
government, industrial pursuits, modes of life, competitions, struggles,
sufferings, and privations of the industrious poor, and their influences on
the health, morals and energies of the community, would naturally modify
the character, and determine the type of those diseased conditions of mind
and body which might be expected to arise from widespread calamities in our
times. The panics of a community, like the terrors of an individual when
they strike deep and are of long continuance . . . are equally likely now,
as at any former period, to be followed by mental disorders connected with
the prevailing ideas, interests, and speculations of the age . . . Have we
such sure grounds for our confidence in its civilization that no fears may
be entertained of any recurrence of those bewilderments of reason, widely
spread, under which multitudes of people laboured in the 'dark ages' ?
Are we forgetful of the epidemic delirium of the followers of Mr. Thorns in
Canterbury and its vicinity, of the belief in his divinity, of the
sincerity of that belief, sealed with the blood of several of his
followers? Can the theomania of the followers of Johanna Southcote be
forgotten ? the information of an extensive sect, deriving their doctrine
from the hallucinations of an illiterate, repulsive, dropsical old dame,
dreaming in her dotage of the instincts of maternity, and of a divine
mission being given to her ? or the delusions of those followers, which
were so strongly manifested in the preparation of a costly cradle and
swaddling clothes of the finest texture for the expected offspring of an
infatuated old woman ? Has the enlightenment of the 19th century so
entirely dissipated the dark thick mists of demented superstition that no
traces of it are to be found in modern English and American records ?
By Steve Rudd: Contact the author for comments, input or corrections.
Send us your story about your experience with modern Psychiatry
Click to View
Go To Start: WWW.BIBLE.CA
|