There are at least 10 medical, psychological or behavioral theories. Some have argued that Joan of Arc suffered from Menieres disease. This is an ear problem that can cause dizziness and ear (auditory) confusion, sometimes taking the form of sounds similar to voices. Others maintain that Joan of Arc suffered from tinnitus. This is a common inner ear problem resulting in hissing or buzzing sounds in the ear that can on occasion resemble voices. Still others contend that Joan of Arc suffered from schizophrenia. Auditory hallucinations are common in schizophrenics. Another view is that Joan of Arc was a psychopath -- and a pretty clever one at that. At her trial, she maintained her wits and poise through tortuous days of hostile cross-examination by skilled interrogators of the Inquisition. They constantly tried to trap her into an admission of guilt. Yet another view is that Joan of Arc hallucinated on a form of LSD. This came about accidentally from eating contaminated grain. The fungus ergot grows on grains such as rye (Secale), barley (Hordeum) and wheat (Triticium). Poor storage of grain, a common occurrence in the Middle Ages, allowed ergot to thrive. Ergot was known as mad grain and drunken rye because of the hallucinations it caused. The psychoactive ingredient in ergot is a form of LSD (lysergic diethylamide). LSD would easily account for the voices. Yet still another view is that Joan of Arc only pretended to hear voices. Supporters of this theory argue that she faked mental illness in order to gain favour from a sympathetic King Charles VII of France. The Kings own father suffered from mental illness and was aptly known as Charles the Mad. In 1986, Dr. R.H. Ratnasuriya, a psychologist at the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospital in London, argued in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine that Joan of Arc suffered from a form of tuberculosis that resulted in a tumour (tuberculoma) in the temporal region of her brain. Such a tumour can produce auditory hallucinations, thus explaining her voices. In response to this theory, later in 1986 and in the same journal, Dr. D.A. Moore, with the intriguing title of medical services director of the Scottish and Newcastle Breweries, dismissed the tuberculoma theory and instead offered one of his own. He voiced the view that Joan of Arcs voices was only one of several symptoms she exhibited. She also suffered profound ill health due to malnutrition (cachexia) and the absence of menstrual periods (amenorrhoea) also due to malnutrition. Thus, Dr. Moore concluded, Joan of Arc more than likely suffered from anorexia nervosa. In 1991 in the journal Epilepsia, Drs. E. Foote-Smith and L. Bayne of the Department of Neurology at the University of California in San Francisco presented the theory that Joan of Arc suffered from epilepsy. They write: We suggest, based on her own words and the contemporary descriptions of observers, that the source of her visions and convictions was in part ecstatic epileptic auras and that she joins the host of creative religious thinkers suspected or known to have [had] epilepsy, from St. Paul and Mohammed to Dostoevsky, [and] who have changed western civilization. The latest theory explaining Joan of Arcs voices, but probably not the last, was put forward in 2004. Writing in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Dr. Maggie Phillips, an Oakland, Calif., psychologist and author of Healing the Divided Self (1995) and Finding the Energy to Heal (2000), suggests that Joan of Arc suffered from post-traumatic fragmentation associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. This was due to child abuse, parental neglect and other terrifying experiences. During the Hundred Years War in particular, life ranged from the horrible to the terrible as death, disease, disaster and destruction were everywhere. While the common folk suffered tragically and endlessly, not knowing what the fighting was really all about and never having victory clearly defined, their leaders merely repeated for more than 100 years, Fight on, and on, and on, and on. Bron : nationalpost/news/story.html?id=18ce2b05-67d7-402a-833e-f0618da5c4e6
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 15:24:49 +0000
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