信仰、医学与社会:中世纪西欧对精神疾病的认知构建

Religion,Medicine,and Society:The Cognitive Construction of Mental Illness in Medieval Western Europe

在中世纪的西欧社会,人们对精神疾病的认识主要依赖于基督教教义的阐释,恶魔附体成为解释精神疾病的主流认知;而自希腊—罗马时期发展而来的体液理论则退而成为解释精神疾病的背景知识,其价值主要体现在放血、沐浴等实践疗法中。12世纪以降,解剖学、星占医学发展迅速,人们对精神疾病也有了更加理性的病理学认识,而随着14世纪西欧人文主义思想的兴起,精神疾病又成为映射“人之发现”这一社会现象的文化隐喻,人们对精神疾病的认知变得更加复杂。研究中世纪西欧在信仰、医学与社会文化层面对精神疾病的认知构建,不仅有助于理解精神疾病本身及其内含的社会文化现象,更能够在一定程度上昭示近代科学化精神疾病医学发展的新方向。

In Medieval Western Europe,people’s interpretation of mental illness relied on the interpretation of Christian doctrines.Demon Possession was the mainstream explanation for mental illness;while the Humoral Theory developed from the Classical Antiquity once became the background for explaining mental illness.The value of knowledge in practice was mainly reflected in therapies such as bloodletting and bathing.Since the 12 th century,anatomy and astrological medicine have developed rapidly,and people had a pathological understanding of mental illness.With the rise of humanism in Western Europe in the 14 th century,mental illness has become a social and cultural metaphor for the reflection of the“Discovery of the Self”.People’s understanding of mental illness has become more complicated.Studying the theories and social construction of mental illness at the level of religion,medicine,and social culture in Western Europe in the Middle Ages not only helps to understand the social and cultural phenomena of mental illness and its connotation,but also can push the study of modern scientific psychiatric medicine towards a new direction.