Medicine, magic, and the scientific revolution

1. Medicine, magic, and the scientific revolution Dr Matthew Broome Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry University of Warwick

2. Content of session • The scientific revolution • Yates and the Rosicrucian Enlightenment • Elizabethan Magi and Psychiatrists • Echoes in the 20th century • Discussion of readings.

3. The scientific revolution i • “There was no such thing as the Scientific Revolution, and this is a book about it.” Steven Shapin (1996, 1). • Simply, Copernicus (1473 -1543) to Newton (1643 -1727) • Shift from Aristotelian and Scholastic physics.

4. The scientific revolution ii • Crucial idea that laws of nature on earth could be applied to the heavens (Galileo). • Sun, stars, and planets – no change or imperfection. Uniform circular motion. • Galileo’s sunspots. • Copernican solar system and overturning of Ptolemy.

5. The scientific revolution iii • Teleological views of nature being replaced by mechanical model. Clock metaphor. • Descartes ‘there is no difference between the machines built by artisans and the diverse bodies that nature alone composes.’

6. The scientific revolution iv • Style • Gentlemanly, dispassionate, modest. • Arguments re: experimentation, detail of methods (Boyle vs. Newton). • Particular instances and induction. • Patronage vs. universities, church. • Bacon, science and the state: ‘Solomon’s House’. Extension of knowledge and of power.

7. Natural magic tradition • Mechanical philosophers contrasted themselves with those who espoused occult powers. • Sympathy, attraction, repulsion. • Means by which acted not specifiable by ordinary ‘manifest’ properties of sensible matter. • Human body (microcosm) and universe (macrocosm).

8. Hermeticism • Egyptian god Thoth identified with Greek Hermes. Called ‘thrice great’. • ‘Hermes Trismegistus’ author of literature around astrology, occult, sympathetic magic. Mistakenly thought to be ancient Egyptian but Hermetica date from AD 100-300. Multiple unknown Greek authors.

9. Crossover of traditions • Kepler – astrologist • Bacon and Boyle – celestial influences • Newton – alchemy and cabala. • Empiricism of scientists also seen in natural magicians: reading the ‘Book of Nature’. • Prior to the Fall: pure and uncorrupted knowledge.

10. Yates’ Renaissance • Frances Yates 1899 -1981. • Importance of Hermetic thought in European culture and the development of science. • ‘Rosicrucian’ example of Dr John Dee 1527 -1609. Alchemy, cabala, hermeticism. • Bacon, Newton. • Dee’s influence on Elizabethan England, Sidney, politics, and poetry.

11. Yates’ Renaissance ii • Magic was mathematics and mechanism in lower world, celestial mathematics in heavens, and angelic conjuration in super-celestial world. • Turning towards scientific enquiry was inspired by Hermetic-Cabbalist religious attitudes (Yates on Giordano Bruno). • Idea of Enlightenment and new illumination

12. Yates’ Renaissance iii • Rosicrucian enlightenment: reform of society, education and religion. • Spenser’s Faerie Queen example of Dee-inspired poetry. Expansionist vision of empire, Raleigh. • Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus as riposte. Conception of Hermetic philosophy as black magic. • Aimed at Puritan Christian Cabalists like Dee.

13. Historical Notions of Insanity

14. Richard Napier • One of last Renaissance magi. • Practicing priest and physician who treated over 2000 patients with mental illness between 1597-1634. • Treated 5-15 patients/day. Detailed questioning and use of astrology. • Mopish, mad, lunatic, troubled in mind, melancholy. • Lesser disorders distinguished from more serious by less frequent violence and rage.

15. 17th century explanations for mental illness • Natural and supernatural. • Napier and his clients tended to employ multiple causes. Immediate cause, linked to temperament and stars. • Physical health and social relationships. • Treatments focused on restoring natural order. Astrology guided timing of medicine, purges, letting, and vomits + allowed influence over sprits.

16. The 20th century i • Rivers – medicine grew out of magic and religion • Mental factors in aetiology of disorder • Mesmer and hypnotism in 18th century • Materialism viewed it as form of ‘magnetism’. • Charcot and Freud. • Move to free association and psychoanalysis.

17. The 20th century ii • Freud’s development of the unconsciousness allowed him to use strict notions of determinism in psychology: analogy to physical science (hydraulic model). • Strict law of causation and psychical deteminism. • Leads to deep probing into history of patient.

18. Magus legend (adapted from E.M. Butler The Myth of the Magus). • Supernatural or mysterious origin • Portents at birth • Perils menacing infancy • Initiation • Distant wanderings • Magical contest • Trial or prosecution • Last scene • Violent or mysterious death • Resurrection and/or ascension.

19. Readings for discussion • Extracts from Macdonald’s book detailing Napier’s clinical work. • Extracts from Jung’s autobiography Memories, Dreams and Reflections.

20. Suggested reading • Steven Shapin 1996 The Scientific Revolution. The University of Chicago Press. • Michael MacDonald 1981 Mystical Bedlam. Cambridge University Press. • Lauren Kassell 2005. Medicine & Magic in Elizabethan London. Oxford University Press. • W.H.R. Rivers 1924. Medicine, Magic and Religion. Routledge. • Frances Yates 1972. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment. Routledge. • Frances Yates 1979. The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age. Routledge. • E.M. Butler 1948 The Myth of the Magus Cambridge University Press. • C.G. Jung 1993. Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Fontana