Piper

Reference Subject Guide -Medieval Mental Health

A subject reference guide is used to help an intended audience conduct research for the subject that research is needed on. For this project, I am creating a guide for how to do research on Medieval/Middle ages views on mental health. The intended audience is students interested in Medieval health, religion and culture. Some of the sources have an English Medieval background, but students without that set of knowledge should still be able to understand based off of historical context and some of the references.

My name is Piper and this topic is something I am passionate about and very interested in. I have my B.A in English Literature, with a concentration in Medieval studies. I did an independent research project about this topic, and to make a guide for people that are interested in the same thing. My independent research project was about medieval mental health but focused on Thomas Hoccleve and Margery Kempe, two influential poets and writers at the time who dealt with mental illness and talked about their experiences in their works. This guide doesn’t include all those works, but one or two sources talk about Kempe and Chaucer due to mental health and their portrayals of it. I didn’t want to include the direct pieces due to them being written in Middle English, and I know not everyone has experience with that. I will try to give context where it is needed. This guide does include modern English, but one can always look up the original text if interested.

A brief history on mental health during the middle ages can be given with an understanding of religion and culture at the time. I have tried to organize the sources for one's research in this guide by order for context purposes. This is so if someone has limited knowledge but is interested in the topic they can still enjoy their research and learn more as they go along.

Religion and Medieval culture at the time played a big role in understanding mental health during that time. Mental health, like depression and anxiety for example, were things that people still experienced back then, just not something they had the medical words or understandings of, as well as Christian ideas of demons and sin. 

That is what the first source for the reference guide pertains to. 

Book resource number one: The Church in the Early Middle Ages by G.R Evans

Evans, G.R. The Church in the Early Middle Ages. New York, L.B. Tauris & Co., Ltd., 2007.

G.R. Evans’ The Church in the Early Middle Ages, published by L.B. Tauris & Co., Ltd., was published in 2007 and is a great introduction to the medieval religious mindset, which is crucial to understanding mental health during this time period. In the beginning there is an index, a preface as well as an abbreviations page so that everything is explained correctly and plainly for people new to this subject. 

The audience for this source doesn’t have to be super knowledgeable about Christianity because this source is a good introduction to how the church was and influenced minds back in the middle ages. This source is intended for people passionate about how religion influenced medieval folks and want to take that approach for mental health in the middle ages.

Book resource number two: Mental Health, Spirituality, and Religion in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age by Albrecht Classen.

Classen, Albrecht. Mental Health, Spirituality, and Religion in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age. Berlin Germany, De Gruyter, inc.,  2014.

Albrecht Classen and Walter de Gruyter’s book was published in 2014 and is available online as a pdf through Proquest. It was published in Germany but focuses on different parts of medieval Europe, like Ireland and the Bohemian middle ages. Because of the intersection of spirituality and mental health, the book talks about religious linking of melancholy or depression and demonic possession.

The book is pretty easy to navigate, as there is an index and different chapters separated and organized by topic. There are entries and blurbs in the introduction of the chapters that give explanations, as well as who each chapter is written by and their credentials/where their degree is from.

Anyone interested in German or European middle ages would find this interesting, but would need to sift through the spirituality and religious contexts, which is why it is placed lower on this list, assuming patrons or students have a little knowledge of Christianity, or have read bits from the books listed above. It should be noted that this book does go up to the early modern age and should be taken into consideration when reading, and note when to stop reading (or continue, if modern takes on the topic are interesting to readers).

Website source number one: https://lithub.com/how-anxiety-evolved-through-the-middle-ages-and-early-modern-europe/

Dennis-Tiwary, Tracy. “How Anxiety Evolved Through the Middle Ages and Early Modern Europe.” Literary Hub, 18 May 2022, https://lithub.com/how-anxiety-evolved-through-the-middle-ages-and-early-modern-europe/

The link on LitHub goes to Tracy Dennis-Tiwary’s post titled “How Anxiety Evolved Through the Middle Ages and Early Modern Europe.” It was first published in 2022 and deals with anxiety and other mental health topics. This source is easier to understand as the author gives historical context where it is needed.

The intended audience for this source would be those with a religious or background, but the author does a good job giving context where it is needed, so those without that knowledge would be okay. This piece adds in that historical and religious context that is needed to understand how some medieval folks understood their own body and mind. It is important context also for the next reference book, which is listed below:

Book resource number three: Margery Kempe and the Lonely Reader by Rebecca Krug.

Krug, Rebecca. Margery Kempe and the Lonely Reader. Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, 2017.

Krug’s book is a reference, response, and rumination over Margery Kempe’s autobiographical piece. Due to her mental health and religious way of life affecting her, Kempe had certain mental health issues that weren’t addressed. If a Patron or researcher hasn’t read her autobiographical work, that would be recommended to understand some of this piece, as it is an analysis and reference and Kempe’s piece is critical during the middle ages time period.

Rebecca Krug’s book was published in 2017 and was published with Cornell University Press. It has a contents page and a preface for readers to follow. The intended audience for this piece would be anyone that has read or has knowledge of Margery Kempe’s life. Any amount of knowledge of her would be fine, as you don’t need to have read the entire book to understand this piece.

Book resource number four: Chaucer and the Late Medieval World by Lillian M. Bisson

Bisson, Lillian M. Chaucer and the Medieval World. New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1998.

This book was published in 1998 by St. Martin’s Press and is a physical book with a contents page and a preface. The intended audience would be anyone that has read any of Chaucer’s works–which is most people that are interested in the middle ages, as he is pretty popular–and the contents are organized by topic so it is easier to find what specific thing you are looking for. I included this as a reference because of the topic of religion in the contents page. NOTE: This is intended for reference because of the intersexuality of religion and mental health views during the time period.

Book resource number five: (online PDF Essay but a book published called Essays in Medieval Studies by Lorenz Hindrichsen) Postpandemic Trauma in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Franklin Tale

Hindrichsen, Lorenz. Essays in Medieval Studies. West Virginia University Press, 2022. 

This is an online PDF, and this essay talks about the trauma that pandemics have caused, which modern readers would be able to understand and appreciate. I included this because trauma falls under mental illness, and I thought it might be interesting if this is the take that readers wanted to research for their own interests. 

It is written by Lorenz Hindrichsen and published by West Virginia University Press, published in 2022. It includes references at the end of the essay. I would use this as a reference piece and intended for anyone looking for articles related to Chaucer or how the pandemic affected mental health of individuals. 

Book resource number six: The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century by Ian Mortimer

Mortimer, Ian. The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century. Great Britain, Simon & Schuster, 2008.

Mortimer’s guide is intended as an overview on how Medieval folks lived their lives and intended for historians and beginners alike. It was published by Simon & Schuster in 2008. It is organized by topic, with things like what people wore and ate organized by different chapters, with a separate chapter on health. This is why I included this piece, because it is a good overview for beginners to the middle ages, but also offers topics on health so that people can learn about cultural views on health during that time period (it doesn’t necessarily talk about mental health, but it offers an understanding on how people viewed things like diseases and illness during the fourteenth century).

Online Resource/book number two: Hearing Spiritual Voices, Medieval Mystics, Meaning and Psychiatry by Christopher C.H. Cook (available online through Bloomsbury Open Access)

Cook, Christopher C.H. Hearing Spiritual Voices, Medieval Mystics, Meaning and Psychiatry. London, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023.

This book is written by Christopher C.H. Cook, published in 2023 by Bloomsbury Publishing. It talks about different individuals who experienced voices that they deemed religious or spiritual. Two of these people are Margery Kempe, who was talked about earlier, as well as Joan of Arc. 

This text is intended for those interested in medieval folks and religious voices or religious saints. You don’t need to have knowledge of these topics, just be interested in these people, because the contents are organized by chapter, so the information is easier to find.

Online Database number one: History Reference source through Explora or EBSCOhost

This database is technically for all historical periods but you can navigate and search by topic. For this guideline I input ‘medieval or middle ages,’ and ‘mental health or psychological health.’ You can sort by newest to oldest, relevance and number of sources per page so that things are easier to find. When I put in this criteria, it did show sources from the middle ages, as well as the renaissance, so be mindful of the dates and timelines you are looking for.

This database is also good for those who need to save their sources, as you can put everything into an online folder once you create an account. This source is helpful for history students specifically, looking for niche middle age or medieval health topics. The sources are abstracted and full PDFs are available online.

Online Database number two: ProQuest

For ProQuest, you can search scholarly journals, books, videos and more. There are basic and advanced searches, and you can also search by peer reviewed sources as well.

This database is good for students and I would say the intended audience for the searches I was doing would be students and dissertation students/researching based on scholarly information rather than generalizations. I would use the term medieval rather than middle ages because when typing in “middle ages mental health” lots of the results are around middle age/parental health topics.

Online research source number three: “Representing Mental Illness in Late Medieval France: Machines, Madness, Metaphor” by Sylvia Huot. (2019, Oxford, Society for the Study of Mediaeval Languages and Literature) https://www.proquest.com/docview/2326817849/fulltextPDF/4E0AD3CC1DA04607PQ/2?accountid=10528&sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals

Huot, Sylvia. “Representing Mental Illness in Late Medieval France: Machines, Madness, Metaphor.” Medium Aevum, vol. 88, no. 1, 2019, pp. 171-172. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2326817849/fulltextPDF/4E0AD3CC1DA04607PQ/2?accountid=10528&sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals

Found on ProQuest, this source pertains mainly to France; those interested in medieval French mental health will find this useful. Volume 88 of this piece deals with Christine de Pizan. It is only 2 pages and a quick read, but good for referencing and understanding French medieval minds. 

The intended audience for this piece would be those more concerned with French medieval poets and writers, as that is what is talked about in this article. 

Online Research source number four: “My Body in the World: Medieval Concepts of Healing and Cure” (2015, dissertation by Mary Hardiman Farley).

Farley, Mary Hardiman. My Body in the World: Medieval Concepts of Healing and Cure. 2015, University of Southern California, PhD dissertation, https://www.proquest.com/docview/2408278745/31AC1D59FB124AF4PQ/19?%20Theses&accountid=10528&sourcetype=Dissertations%20

Also found via ProQuest, this longer text is a dissertation by Mary Hardiman Farley from 2015. It includes a contents page and chapter titles by topic, easily navigated by researching anything from Medieval healing to popular mental illnesses and how they were viewed by the public. While this is about both mental and physical health, it is useful to see how certain groups as well as the public viewed these types of topics. This is a longer piece, over 200 pages, but useful nonetheless. There is also a final chapter about what can be learned from the middle ages, which is important as well. 

The intended audience would be medical professionals or doctoral students trying to get an understanding of medieval topics and ideas. Or, the opposite, Medieval scholars trying to get an idea of medical and mental health topics during the time periods they study. 

Book resource number seven: The Canterbury Tales  by Geoffrey Chaucer

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. New York, W. W. Norton and Company, 2018.

While Chaucer’s book doesn’t necessarily deal with mental health during this time period, it does deal with religious and gender issues, and a specific poem deals with mental health (as talked about earlier, The Franklin's tale). This work, as well as the two works that follow are intended as references to medieval examples of mental health due to the nature of the things that they talk about, while relevant, but also obscure and only talked about during certain chapters.

Chaucer’s work is from the medieval period, a primary source, but the citation is the piece published in 2018. It has different chapters for different stories, each dealing with a different topic, some health related, some not! I would say the intended audience for this piece would be beginners to the subject, as it is a pretty popular piece, and most enthusiasts of the genre have read it.

Book resource number eight: Margery Kempe’s The Book of Margery Kempe.

Kempe, Margery. The Book of Margery Kempe. Penguin Random House, 1986. 

Chaucer’s works might have been the most influential during this time period but Kempe’s is certainly the most relatable for topics of mental health. As a primary source originally, she wrote her autobiography (she had someone act as a scribe, as she couldn’t read or write) and wrote out her life, depicted in tales of hearing voices, which is described tremendously. She is a great source and reference for mental health, as well as religious saints during the time period (if those that read her work describe her as that, it can be a bit ambiguous)

This source is intended for those with mental health and psychological knowledge, as Kempe isn’t diagnosed with anything but is a primary example of those that live without diagnosis of mental health issues! A great source and read for this topic and an all-around marvel.

Book resources number nine: The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan

De Pizan, Christine. The Book of the City of Ladies, Penguin Classics, 2000.

Christine’s piece is the last on the list, due to her herself not having psychological issues other than her family life that was influential to her writing (she has some family members that passed away) but the character in this piece of literature experiences visions of women and a perfect world.