Brain Disease or Emotional Distress? Modern Psychology, Ancient Asceticism, and the Hermeneutics of DSM-5

Abstract

This article examines descriptions of emotional distress and social alienation from two interdisciplinary perspectives: modern clinical psychology and late antique hagiography. The first case study examines the current method of classification in psychiatry: the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5). Offering a broad perspective on how the DSM-5 came to be, we look at the strengths but also the pitfalls of this classification system. We argue that societal context is important when identifying a disorder, but it, ironically, only plays a small part when applying the DSM-5 in everyday psychiatric practice. Furthermore, it will be argued that historical contexts may usefully inform modern clinical practice (for instance, because they show how the interpretation of ‘abnormal’ behaviour is in flux). The second section will examine descriptions of emotions and distress in hagiographic sources from Late Antiquity. It analyses a hagiographic collection, the Historia Lausiaca as a taxonomy that both describes and regulates Christian pious life. In Late Antiquity, social developments, such as the growth of and enthusiasm for the ascetic movement, led to the introduction of new concepts for how to deal with and integrate expressions of emotional distress. Ultimately, by occupying the intersection of religion and medicine, this article aims to further psychologists’ understanding of how past societies used religious ideas to shape individual behaviour and its interpretation. Additionally, it will inform historians about modern classification methods in psychiatry and how these have influenced the interpretation of behavioural traits.