Body: | The signs and causes of melancholy
Richard Baxter
Church Minister
(1615-1691)
(posthumously compiled by Samuel Clifford, minister of the Gospel in 1716
AD)
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Introduction:
In 1716 AD, Samuel Clifford, minister of the Gospel posthumously
compiled a collection of writings of Richard Baxter, preacher for a church.
As noted above, Baxter viewed madness as a spiritual problem, not a bodily
or physical one. He correctly viewed the cause of madness as sin and
"wounds of the conscience". He correctly charged the insane as being
"guilty of voluntary active Self-pollution" who willfully sinned, then
suffered the pains of their conscience. Baxter notes that cognitive
dissonance from unrepented sin, can lead to delusion, paranoia, depression
and laziness. "I would warn all young Persons to live modestly, and keep at
a sufficient distance from Objects that tempt them to carnal Lust . . . For
I can tell them by the sad Experience of many, that venerous Crimes leave
deep wounds in the Conscience; and that those that were never guilty of
Fornication, are oft cast into long and lamentable Troubles, by letting
Satan once into their Phantasies . . . especially when they are guilty of
voluntary active Self-pollution". Baxter notes the symptoms as self
condemnation due to personal sinful conduct, paranoia that others are
constantly talking about them and laziness. "Melancholy Persons are
commonly exceeding fearful . . . Their Fantasie most erreth in aggravating
their Sin, or Dangers or Unhappiness... They are continual Self-Accusers,
turning all into matter of Accusation against themselves ... They are still
apprehending themselves forsaken of God . . . and that it is now too late
to repent or find Mercy ... suspicious of every Body that they see
whispering ... given to Idleness, either to lie in Beds, or to sit
unprofitably by themselves". Baxter's cure is as puzzling as it is opposite
to what is needed. Having already stated that personal sin is the cause of
madness, he suggests diversion from consciousness of sin and lots of
personal attention, rather than repentance and social isolation as mandated
in Matthew 18. "A great part of their Cure lieth in pleasing them, and
avoiding all displeasing Things, as far as lawfully can be done ... divert
them from the Thoughts which are their Trouble ... Suffer them not to be
long alone, get sit Company to them". As a preacher, Baxter should have
known better than to suggest this. When someone is in sin, it justifiably
makes them feel bad and under the condemnation of hell. The only cure is
repentance and forgiveness from God. Baxter's cure for a fornicator who
feels condemned by God, for example, would be to have the sinner think
about fields of flowers and sunsets rather than his sin. This is equivalent
to what is done today in chemical psychiatry where drugs are used to take
away bad feelings of the conscious. Baxter also suggests that the sinner
should be given lots of undue attention and never left alone. This is
opposite to what Jesus said in Matthew 18, where the unrepentant sinner is
to be socially isolated. Baxter's system of "diversion and love bombing"
does work on the melancholy, but it achieves this in a manner opposite to
what the Bible commands. It is like giving a screaming, disobedient and
rebellious child who refuses to obey the parent, a candy, in order to shut
them up, rather than a good spanking. We are commanded to repent of sin,
not ignore it and think of flowers and rainbows. When the sinner sees those
around him engage in coddling and reassurance, without discipline, it is
like giving that candy to the rebellious child. When many people spend time
with a melancholy sinner it sends the message: "Don't feel bad about your
sin, we are all here spending time with you in order to remove your bad
feelings without repenting." This obvious truth is what Baxter understood
300 years ago! (The signs and causes of melancholy, Richard Baxter, 1716
AD)
"Baxter recorded in his autobiography (Reliquix Baxteriance . . .
published .. . by Matthew Sylvester, 1696) that like many clergymen of his
time he was in the early years of his ministry 'forced .. . by the Peoples
Necessity to practise Physick . . . no Physician being near'. Later when he
had become famous for his wisdom he was 'troubled . . . with multitudes of
melancholly Persons, from several Parts of the Land . . . I know not how it
came to pass, but if men fell melancholly I must hear from them or see them
(more than any Physician that I know)'. From this experience he formulated
'Three Counsels' which seemed to him of special importance in the
prevention of mental illness : 'I. That we must very much take heed lest we
ascribe Melancholy Phantasms and Passions to God's Spirit'; '2. I would
warn all young Persons to live modestly, and keep at a sufficient distance
from Objects that tempt them to carnal Lust . . . For I can tell them by
the sad Experience of many, that venerous Crimes leave deep wounds in the
Conscience; and that those that were never guilty of Fornication, are oft
cast into long and lamentable Troubles, by letting Satan once into their
Phantasies . . . especially when they are guilty of voluntary active Self-
pollution'; '3. I advise all . . . to take heed of placing Religion too
much in Fears, and Tears, and Scruples'. Many of his psychiatric
observations scattered in almost 200 separate works were gathered
posthumously into one volume for the benefit of those 'who are either
Afflicted with Melancholy themselves; or desirous to relieve and assist
Others under such a Disorder', since 'There is not any where yet Publish'd,
that we know of, so full, and distinct, and orderly a Consideration of this
Case'. Baxter's distinction between patients 'rationally sorrowful for Sin'
and those with 'Hurt or Error of the Imagination' would be made today in
terms of neurotic or reactive and endogenous or psychotic depression; while
sorrow, as he pointed out, is easily mistaken for depression especially
where the cause is not immediately apparent. Among the signs of melancholy
he included ideas of reference, and that many 'think that never any one was
as they are', an expression of patients' distress with which every
psychiatrist is familiar. His cardinal rule for treatment was to 'put them
in a Pleased condition' - the reverse of medical treatment which
consisted essentially in administering discomfort, pain and shock. His idea
that patients might comfort 'others, that are in deeper Distresses than
themselves' was the germ from which later developed group therapy as well
as the employment of recovered patients as psychiatric aides; and the
'pretty Diversion to send to them some Person . . . to dispute .. . with
them' might be explained in terms of Freud's interpretation that depression
is anger turned inwards and is relieved when it can find an outlet." (300
years of Psychiatry, Richard Hunter, 1963, p240)
The signs and causes of melancholy, Richard Baxter, 1716 AD
Richard Baxter (1615-1691)
Nonconformist divine and author
The signs and causes of melancholy. With directions suited to the case of
those who are afflicted with it. Collected out of the works of Mr. Richard
Baxter, for the sake of those, who are wounded in spirit. By Samuel
Clifford, minister of the Gospel, 1716 London, Cruttenden & Cox (pp. xivii
+ 128) pp. 5-19, 120-2, 125-7
THE SIGNS AND CURE OF MELANCHOLY
Melancholy Persons are commonly exceeding fearful . . . Their Fantasie most
erreth in aggravating their Sin, or Dangers or Unhappiness . . . They are
still addicted to Excess of Sadness, some weeping they know not why, and
some thinking it ought to be so; and if they should Smile or speak merrily,
their Hearts smite them for it, as if they had done amiss . . . They are
continual Self-Accusers, turning all into matter of Accusation against
themselves, which they hear or read, or see, or think of; quarrelling with
themselves for every thing they do, as a contentious Person doth with
others. They are still apprehending themselves forsaken of God . . . and
that it is now too late to repent or find Mercy . . . They never read or
hear of any miserable Instance, but they are thinking that this is their
Case .. . And yet they think that never any one was as they are: I have had
Abundance in a few Weeks with me, almost just in the same Case; and yet
every one saith, never any one was as they. They are utterly unable to
rejoyce in anything : They cannot apprehend, believe or think of any thing
that is comfortable to them . . . They are still displeased and
discontented with themselves; just as a peevish froward Person is apt to be
with others . . . and suspicious of every Body that they see whispering . .
. They are much averse to the Labours of their Callings, and given to
Idleness, either to lie in Beds, or to sit unprofitably by themselves.
Their Thoughts are most upon themselves, like the Mill-stones that grind on
themselves when they have no Grist; so one Thought begets another. Their
Thoughts are taken up about their Thoughts; when they have thought
irregularly, they think again what they have been thinking on . . . Their
Thoughts are all perplexed . . . They are endless in their Scruples . . .
Hence it comes to pass that they are greatly addicted to Superstition . . .
They have lost the Power of Governing their Thoughts by Reason; so that if
you convince them that they should cast out their Self-perplexing
unprositable Thoughts, and turn their Thoughts to other Subjects, or be
vacant, they are not able to obey you . . . They can think of nothing but
what they do think of, no more than a Man in the Tooth-Ach, can forbear to
think of his Pain . . . The very Pain of their Fears, doth draw their
Thoughts to what they fear. As he that is over desirous to Sleep, is sure
to Wake; because his Fears and Desires keep him Waking: So do the Fears and
Desires of the Melancholy cross themselves .. .
A great part of their Cure lieth in pleasing them, and avoiding all
displeasing Things, as far as lawfully can be done . . . If you know any
lawful thing that will please them in Speech, in Company, in Apparel, in
Rooms, in Attendance, give it them. If you know at what they are
displeased, remove it. I speak not of the distracted who must be mastered
by Force, but of the sad and Melancholy : Could you put them in a pleased
Condition you might Cure them.
As much as you can, divert them from the Thoughts which are their Trouble;
keep them on some other Talk or Business; break in upon them, and interrupt
their Musings; raise them out of it, but with loving Importunity : Suffer
them not to be long alone, get sit Company to them, or them to it;
especially suffer them not to be Idle, but drive or draw them to some
pleasing Work, which may stir the Body and employ the Thoughts . . . It's
an useful way if you can, to engage them in comforting others, that are in
deeper Distresses than themselves : For this will tell them, that their
Case is not singular, and they will speak to themselves, while they speak
to others.
And it would be a pretty Diversion to send to them some Person that is in
some Error, which they are most against, to dispute it with them, that
while they confute their Wits to convince them and confute them, it may
turn their Thoughts from their own Distress. Forestus tells us, that a
Melancholy Patient of his, who was a Papist, was Cured when the Reformation
came into that Country, by eager and oft disputing against it. A better
Cause may better do it.
If other means will not do, neglect not Physick; and tho' they will be
averse to it, as believing that the Disease is only in the Mind, and that
Physick cannot Cure Souls, yet they must be persuaded or forced to it. The
Soul and Body are wonderful Co-partners in their Diseases and Cure, yet
when experience telleth us, that it doth it, we have Reason to use such
means. I have known a Lady deep in Melancholy, who a long time would
neither speak, nor take Physick; nor endure her Husband to go out of the
Room; and with the Restraint and Grief he Died, and she was Cured by
Physick put down her Throat, with a Pipe by Force.
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