Lunacy, Frenzy, Non Compos Mentis: Schizophrenia and Cognitive Dissonance in Early Modern England

The proposed research explores 16th and 17th century perceptions of mental disturbance, focussing on the symptoms typically associated with schizophrenia: lunacy, frenzy and mania. It will use legal and medical records to identify contemporary descriptions of these symptoms. It will also examine how far contemporaries believed that these symptoms, which are currently identified as being part of the pathology of schizophrenia, were connected and were distinct from other forms of cognitive dissonance. Drawing on medical, philosophical and religious texts, I will examine contemporary understandings of the nature and causes of these symptoms. I will also examine what attempts to 'cure' or care for those suffering from 'lunacy', 'frenzy' and 'mania' reveals about early modern conceptions of mental abnormality, disorder and suffering.