H. C. Erik Midelfort est un historien éminent spécialisé dans la Réforme allemande et l'histoire du christianisme en Europe moderne. Ses œuvres fondamentales explorent en profondeur les fondements sociaux et intellectuels complexes de l'époque, en particulier les thèmes de la sorcellerie et de la folie. Il est reconnu pour ses contributions significatives au rapprochement des communautés savantes allemandes et américaines grâce à la traduction d'importants textes allemands. La recherche rigoureuse de Midelfort offre des perspectives profondes sur les changements de la société européenne et de la pensée religieuse durant une période de transformation.
During the 16th century, close to 30 German noblemen were known as mad. This work studies these princes (and a few princesses) as a group and in context - illuminating the history of Renaissance medicine and psychiatry, German politics in the Reformation and Renaissance definitions of madness.
This magisterial work explores how Renaissance Germans understood and experienced madness. It focuses on the insanity of the world in general but also on specific disorders; examines the thinking on madness of theologians, jurists, and physicians; and analyzes the vernacular ideas that propelled sufferers to seek help in pilgrimage or newly founded hospitals for the helplessly disordered. In the process, the author uses the history of madness as a lens to illuminate the history of the Renaissance, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the history of poverty and social welfare, and the history of princely courts, state building, and the civilizing process.
This work explores how Renaissance Germans understood and experienced madness. It focuses on topics including: the insanity of the world in general; specific disorders; the thinking on madness of theologians, jurists, and physicians; and vernacular ideas that made sufferers seek help.
Explores Catholic priest Johann Joseph Gassner's extraordinary exorcising campaign during the late eighteenth century when he healed thousands by banishing the demons he believed were responsible for most human ailments.
H. C. Erik Midelfort has carved out a reputation for innovative work on early modern German history, with a particular focus on the social history of ideas and religion. This collection pulls together some of his best work on the related subjects of witchcraft, the history of madness and psychology, demonology, exorcism, and the social history of religious change in early modern Europe. Several of the pieces reprinted here constitute reviews of recent scholarly literature on their topics, while others offer sharp departures from conventional wisdom. A critique of Michel Foucault's view of the history of madness proved both stimulating but irritating to Foucault's most faithful readers, so it is reprinted here along with a short retrospective comment by the author. Another focus of this collection is the social history of the Holy Roman Empire, where towns, peasants, and noble families developed different perceptions of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations and of the options the religious revolutions of the sixteenth century offered. Finally, this collection also brings together articles which show how Freudian psychoanalysis and academic sociology have filtered and interpreted the history of early modern Germany.