Descripción del proyecto
Las enfermedades mentales en Grecia durante la Edad Media
¿Cómo se entendían las enfermedades mentales en Grecia durante la Edad Media? ¿Se hacía en términos sobrenaturales? El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos MadByz investigará las opiniones médicas bizantinas sobre los trastornos mentales. Analizará sus efectos sobre las narrativas, las percepciones y las experiencias de la enfermedad mental en la Edad Media en Grecia. A partir de investigaciones anteriores sobre el campo de la historia de la medicina y la «locura» en la antigüedad, el proyecto llevará a cabo un estudio sistemático a partir de una amplia variedad de fuentes. Esta investigación supondrá un nuevo peldaño en el camino hacia una mejor comprensión de la historia y la circulación de las ideas científicas más importantes durante la Edad Media. MadByz repercutirá en nuestra manera de ver el pasado y el presente de la enfermedad mental, al cuestionar nuestras opiniones y las asunciones sobre temas fundamentales relativos a la estigmatización y la institucionalización.
Objetivo
This proposal explores Byzantine medical views on mental disorders and their impact on narratives, perceptions and experiences of mental illness in the Greek Middle Ages. The Byzantine world is most notably absent from cultural and historical surveys on madness and medicine in pre-modern societies. And yet Byzantium tells us a story worth hearing. Byzantine responses to cognitive and behavioral disorders capture the biological, psychological and social complexity of mental illness resonating with the epistemic pluralism advocated by global mental health studies. By investigating how medical concepts trickle down and affect folk concepts of madness, MadByz challenges the master narrative according to which the Greek Middle Ages understood mental illness only in supernatural terms. By contrast, this proposal argues that Byzantine naturalistic understandings of mental illness are part of a cluster of different discourses on insanity, testifying to the coexistence of varied views on mental disorders. MadByz builds on the experienced researcher’s previous research in the field of history of medicine and on “madness” in ancient times, expanding his expertise and providing new training opportunities in Byzantine Greek, Narratology and Disability Studies. By offering a systematic study of a wide array of sources, MadByz is an essential stepping-stone toward a better understanding of the history and the circulation of key scientific ideas in the Middle Ages. By engaging with the entanglements and conflicts between concepts of mental disorders, MadByz also looks at the place occupied by the mentally ill within their socio-familiar and broader institutional framework. In so doing, MadByz impacts on the way we look at the past and at the present of mental illness, questioning our views and assumptions on key issues of stigmatization and institutionalization, as well as of segregation and inclusion, which are at the heart of mental health policies promoted by the OECD and the EU
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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinador
5230 Odense M
Dinamarca