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

Coping With Pandemics: A Historical Perspective About Society's Tools to Deal With Global Infectious Diseases

ABSTRACT

Throughout history, society has dealt with several devastating pandemics. Our objective is to analyze society's coping mechanisms to deal with pandemic-related stress in history congruent with the values of the time. For that purpose, we have carefully selected some of the most significant pandemics based on their impact and the available psychosocial literature. After a brief introduction, society's coping tools are reviewed and analyzed for the Antonine Plague, the second bubonic plague, the third cholera pandemic, the Spanish flu, the HIV pandemic, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite occurring at different times in history, parallels can be established in the study of society's psychological reactions among different pandemics. Magical thinking, political skepticism, fake accusations, and discrimination of minorities are recurrent reactions in society among different pandemics in history.

Traditional, religious, and cultural perspectives on mental illness: a qualitative study on causal beliefs and treatment use

PURPOSE

Limited information is known from studies regarding traditional, religious, and cultural perspectives on mental illness and the use of traditional and alternative therapies by mentally ill people in Indonesia. This study explored traditional, religious, and cultural beliefs about causes of mental illness and the use of traditional/alternative treatments for mentally ill patients.

METHOD

We adopted a qualitative content analysis method as proposed by Schreier. This study was conducted at a mental Hospital in Indonesia. We interviewed 15 nurses and 15 patients. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis method.

RESULTS

Five discrete but interrelated themes emerged: 1) Possessed illness and belief in supernatural forces; 2) Sinful or cursed illness; 3) Witchcraft or human-made illness; 4) traditional/alternative treatments; and 5) Barriers to treatment of mental illness.

CONCLUSION

Traditional/alternative treatments play an important role in meeting the need for mental health treatment. The findings are relevant for mental health nurses who provide direct to their patients, and for other areas of mental health practice. We also found a lack of knowledge about the causes of mental illness among patients and families. Education should be at the heart of mental health promotion to raise the level of mental health literacy in Indonesia.

Saints, demons, and faith - A review of the historical interaction between Christianity and epilepsy

The view that epilepsy is caused by demonic possession prevailed throughout the Middle Ages and re-emerges in rare cases of misguided exorcisms even in modern Western societies. This review reflects on the biblical sources of the demonic understanding of seizures and the subsequent marginalization of people with epilepsy. While the development of science led to a decline in beliefs of supernatural causes of seizures, the link between Christianity and epileptology is sustained through recurrent considerations of epileptic phenomena among religious figures. The influence of epilepsy on the legacy of historical persons of Christianity should be regarded with caution because of limited clinical evidence in historical documents. However, it should be acknowledged that religious experiences, as well as general religiosity, can be important in modern-day epilepsy care as they are shown to have psychological, societal, and even clinical implications. Further studies should expand our knowledge on the contemporary importance of the Christian tradition for people with epilepsy.

Saints and "Possession": A Case Review Bordering Ethnopsychiatry and Cultural Diversity

The migrations of modern times have exposed psychiatrists and other medical experts to elements from other cultures which have to be recognised and discerned from pathology. In the present paper, we offer an overview of both historical and modern witnessings of various kinds of "possession", with shedding light on the whole process of diagnostics-taking into account all aspects that make a person as an individual: with particular emphasis on origin, lifestyle, moral values, and ethical norms what is sometimes easily associable with culture-bound phenomena, and sometimes overstepping the border of clinical disturbance, to maximise the possibility of recovery.

Reclaiming magical incantation in graduate medical education

Critical thinking relies upon conceptualization (what is the possible pathophysiology?), analysis (how do I relate an aberration in physiology to the lived experience of illness?), and synthesizing (how do I best intervene?). These cognitive skills are subsumed in the category of reflective competencies and are necessary for developing a differential diagnosis or a plan of care. A vulnerability of teaching medicine through the filter of heuristics is that it may simply recapitulate the teacher's style of cognitive shortcuts. Poorly calibrated heuristics may culminate in systematic errors of judgment. If the aim is to teach critical reasoning in the arena of clinical education, then a new paradigm is called for. Teaching critical reasoning as it applies to medical decision-making begins with recognizing decision scripts.Key Points• Medical heuristics are high-stakes endeavors.• The process of examining the choice of heuristics employed in any given clinical scenario is a meta-reasoning strategy.• Debiasing reduces cognitive errors due to motivated reasoning.

Casas de Locos: The Treatment of the Mentally Ill in the Hispanic World Before the Enlightenment

Before the Enlightenment, the mentally ill in the Hispanic world received standard medical care. After the foundation of the first hospital for specific treatment for mentally ill in Valencia in 1409, a number of hospitals opened their doors to patients with mental illness across the Iberian Peninsula during the 15th century. This model of medical care for people with mental illness was carried to America and the Philippines soon after the arrival of the Spaniards. The treatment for the mentally ill in the Hispanic World influenced the development of Pinel's moral treatment and the care of the mentally ill during the Enlightenment. This article will explain the circumstances leading to the foundation of a number of specific hospitals for the mentally ill in the Hispanic territories as well as the kind of care that these patients received at the so-called casas de locos.

Functional brain MRI in patients complaining of electrohypersensitivity after long term exposure to electromagnetic fields

INTRODUCTION

Ten adult patients with electromagnetic hypersensitivity underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans. All scans were abnormal with abnormalities which were consistent and similar. It is proposed that fMRI brain scans be used as a diagnostic aid for determining whether or not a patient has electromagnetic hypersensitivity. Over the years we have seen an increasing number of patients who had developed multi system complaints after long term repeated exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs). These complaints included headaches, intermittent cognitive and memory problems, intermittent disorientation, and also sensitivity to EMF exposure. Regular laboratory tests were within normal limits in these patients. The patients refused to be exposed to radioactivity. This of course ruled out positron emission tomography (PET) and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) brain scanning. This is why we ordered fMRI brain scans on these patients. We hoped that we could document objective abnormalities in these patients who had often been labeled as psychiatric cases.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Ten patients first underwent a regular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scan, using a 3 Tesla Siemens Verio MRI open system. A functional MRI study was then performed in the resting state using the following sequences: A three-dimensional, T1-weighted, gradient-echo (MPRAGE) Resting state network. The echo-planar imaging (EPI) sequences for this resting state blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) scan were then post processed on a 3D workstation and the independent component analysis was performed separating out the various networks. Arterial spin labeling. Tractography and fractional anisotropy.

RESULTS

All ten patients had abnormal functional MRI brain scans. The abnormality was often described as hyper connectivity of the anterior component of the default mode in the medial orbitofrontal area. Other abnormalities were usually found. Regular MRI studies of the brain were mostly unremarkable in these patients.

CONCLUSION

We propose that functional MRI studies should become a diagnostic aid when evaluating a patient who claims electrohypersensitivity (EHS) and has otherwise normal studies. Interestingly, the differential diagnosis for the abnormalities seen on the fMRI includes head injury. It turns out that many of our patients indeed had a history of head injury which was then followed sometime later by the development of EHS. Many of our patients also had a history of exposure to potentially neurotoxic chemicals, especially mold. Head injury and neurotoxic chemical exposure may make a patient more vulnerable to develop EHS.