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262:"several types of disease known as somatoform disorders, in which somatic symptoms appear either without any organic disorder or without organic damage that can account for the severity of the symptoms. ... A second type, conversion disorders, involves inexplicable malfunctions in motor and sensory systems. The third type, pain disorder, involves sensation either in the absence of an organic problem or in excess of actual physical damage."
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entails the possibility for sin, damnation, common internal quarrels, and the strict outlook on marriage, repressed the un-married teenagers who felt damnation was imminent. The young girls longed for freedom to move beyond their low status in society. The girls indulged in the forbidden conduct of fortune-telling with the Indian slave Tituba to discover who their future husbands were. They had hysteria as they tried to cope with,
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of the
Puritan community created internal conflict among the young girls who felt controlled by the older women leading to internal feelings of resentment. Demos asserts that often neighborly relations within the Puritan community remained tense and most witchcraft episodes began after some sort of conflict or encounter between neighbors. The accusation of witchcraft was a
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history of family illness. Her mother experienced paranoid tendencies from previous tragedies in her life, and when Ann Jr. began to experience hysterical fits, her symptoms verged on psychotic. Starkey argues they had hysteria and as they began to receive more attention, used it as a means to rebel against the restrictions of
Puritanism.
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Their symptoms of excessive weeping, silent states followed by violent screams, hiding under furniture, and hallucinations were a result of hysteria. Starkey conveys that after the crisis at Salem had calmed it was discovered that diagnosed insanity appeared in the Parris family. Ann Putnam Jr. had a
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The girls suffered from what appeared to be bite marks and would often try to throw themselves into fires, classic symptoms of hysteria. Hansen explains that hysterics will often try to injure themselves, which never result in serious injuries because they wait until someone is present to stop them.
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Demos asserts that the violent fits displayed, often aimed at figures of authority, were attributed to bewitchment because it allowed the afflicted youth to project their repressed aggression and not be directly held responsible for their behaviors because they were coerced by the Devil. Therefore,
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could explain the violent fits the girls were experiencing during the crisis at Salem. Demos displays through charts that most of the accused were predominantly married or widowed women between the ages of forty-one and sixty, while the afflicted girls were primarily adolescent girls. The structure
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were accused of witchcraft, some of them the same leaders who failed to successfully protect besieged settlements to the north. This anomaly in the pattern of typical witch trials, combined with widespread blame for the northern attacks on colonial leadership, suggests the relevance of the northern
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Not only might the violence of the border skirmishes to the north explain symptoms of PTSD in accusers who formerly lived among the slaughtered, but the widespread blame of elite incompetence for those attacks offers a compelling explanation for the unusual demographic among the accused. Within the
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allies of the French attacked
British colonists in Maine, New Hampshire, and northern Massachusetts in a series of guerrilla skirmishes. Survivors blamed colonial leaders for the attacks' successes, accusing them of incompetence, cowardice, and corruption. A climate of fear and panic pervaded the
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Starkey acknowledges that, while the afflicted girls were physically healthy before their fits began, they were not spiritually well because they were sickened from trying to cope with living in an adult world that did not cater to their needs as children. The basis for a
Puritan society, which
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Psychologists
Nicholas P. Spanos and Jack Gottlieb explain that the afflicted were enacting the roles that maintained their definition of themselves as bewitched, and this in turn led to the conviction of many of the accused that the symptoms, such as bites, pinches and pricks, were produced by
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Hansen approaches the afflicted girls through a pathological lens arguing that the girls had clinical hysteria because of the fear of witchcraft, not witchcraft itself. The girls feared bewitchment and experienced symptoms that were all in the girls' heads. Hansen contests that,
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Within seven months, however, an article disagreeing with this theory was published in the same journal by Spanos and
Gottlieb They performed a wider assessment of the historical records, examining all the symptoms reported by those claiming affliction, among other things, that
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as well, have emerged because it is not widely believed today that symptoms of those claiming affliction were actually caused by bewitchment. The reported symptoms have been explored by a variety of researchers for possible biological and psychological origins.
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The dynamic core of belief in witchcraft in early New
England was the difficulty experienced by many individuals in finding ways to handle their own aggressive impulses in a Puritan culture. Aggression was thus denied in the self and attributed directly to
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aggression experienced because of witchcraft became an outlet and the violent fits and the physical attacks endured, inside and outside the courtroom, were examples of how each girl was undergoing the psychological process of projection.
288:“if you believe in witchcraft and you discover that someone has been melting your wax image over a slow fire ... the probability is that you will get extremely sick – your symptoms will be psychosomatic rather than organic.”
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points out that many of the afflicted girls were orphaned maidservants from the Maine frontier. These maidservants had lived through the attacks and were kin to many of those killed by the
Wabanaki. Norton, Mary Beth. (2003).
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northern coastline, causing a mass exodus to southern
Massachusetts and beyond. Fleeing survivors from these attacks included some of the maidservant accusers in their childhood. Witnessing a violent attack is a trigger for
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in 1970 adopted a psycho-historical approach to confronting the unusual behavior displayed by the afflicted girls in Salem during 1692. Demos combined the disciplines of anthropology and psychology to propose that
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Biological symptoms do not start and stop based on external cues, as described by witnesses, nor do biological symptoms start and stop simultaneously across a group of people, also as described by witnesses.
355:. Applying the ointment to the body caused hallucinations of flying and sexual experiences, and women who used the ointment were condemned as witches. Active ingredients in the ointment may have included
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Modern academic historians of witch-hunts generally consider medical explanations unsatisfactory in explaining the phenomenon and tend to believe the accusers in Salem were motivated by social
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A widely known theory about the cause of the reported afflictions attributes the cause to the ingestion of bread that had been made from rye grain that had been infected by a fungus,
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to display any suppressed anger and resentment felt. The violent fits and verbal attacks experienced at Salem were directly related to the process of projection, as Demos explains,
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guerrilla attacks to the accusers. Thus, Mary Beth Norton, whose work draws the parallel between the Salem witch trials and King Philip's War, argues implicitly that a
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historical phenomenon, witch trial 'defendants' were overwhelmingly female, and members of the lower classes. The Salem witch trial breaks from this pattern. In the
123:, making the claim that the hallucinations of the afflicted girls could possibly have been the result of ingesting rye bread that had been made with moldy grain.
578:
Kences, James E. (2000). Some
Unexplored Relationships of Essex County Witchcraft to the Indian Wars of 1675 and 1687. In Frances Hill (ed.). (1984).
249:, according to Marion Starkey and Chadwick Hansen. Physicians have replaced the vague diagnosis of hysteria with what is essentially its synonym,
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on the skin. Hansen believes the girls are not accountable for their actions because they were not consciously responsible in committing them.
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In 1989, Mary Matossian reopened the issue, supporting Caporeal, including putting an image of ergot-infected rye on the cover of her book,
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In 1999, Laurie Winn Carlson offered an alternative medical theory, that those afflicted in Salem who claimed to have been bewitched, had
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of PTSD and a popular societal narrative of betrayal-from-within caused the unusual characteristics of this particular witch trial.
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If the poison was in the food supply, symptoms would have occurred on a house-by-house basis not in only certain individuals.
177:, a disease whose symptoms match some of what was reported in Salem and could have been spread by birds and other animals.
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Spanos, Nicholas P. (1983). Ergotism and the Salem witch panic: a critical analysis and an alternative conceptualization.
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He also concludes that skin lesions are the most common psychosomatic symptom among hysterics, which can resemble
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specters. These symptoms were typically apparent throughout the community and caused an internal disease process.
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and that the extreme behaviors exhibited were "counterfeit," as contemporary critics of the trials had suspected.
347:"Flying ointment" or "witch's ointment" was a hallucinogenic ointment said to have been used in the practice of
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275:"the consequences of a conflict between conscience (or at least fear of discovery) and the unhallowed craving."
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Psychological processes known to influence physical health are now called "psychosomatic". They include:
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The Psychology of the Salem Witchcraft Excitement of 1692 and its Practical Application to our own Time
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The symptoms displayed by the afflicted in Salem are similar to those seen in classic cases of
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Spanos, Nicholas P. & Jack Gottlieb. (1976). Ergotism and the Salem Village witch trials.
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Spanos, Nicholas P. and Jack Gottlieb. (1976). Ergotism and the Salem Village Witch Trials.
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that indicated a geographical constraint to the reports of affliction within Salem Village.
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Ergot poisoning has additional symptoms that were not reported by those claiming affliction.
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Matossian, Mary Kilbourne. (1989). Chapter 9, "Ergot and the Salem Witchcraft Affair" In
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Caulfield, Ernest. (1943). Pediatric Aspects of the Salem Witchcraft Tragedy.
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Bever, Edward. (2000). Witchcraft Fears and Psychosocial Factors in Disease.
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The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Enquiry into the Salem Witch Trials
99:. This fungus contains chemicals similar to those used in the synthetic
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A Fever in Salem: A New Interpretation of the New England Witch Trials
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Woolf, Alan. (2000). Witchcraft or Mycotoxin? The Salem Witch Trials.
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The theory was first widely publicized in 1976, when graduate student
582:, Essex Institute Historical Collections, DaCapo Press (July 1984).
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Caporael, Linnda R. (1976). Ergotism: The Satan Loosed in Salem?
557:, 65, pp. 788–802 (May 1943). In Marc Mappen (ed.) (1996).
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causes a variety of symptoms, including nervous dysfunction.
693:, XVII(2), 264–283. doi:10.1093/jhmas/xvii.2.264, p. 267-270
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Sologuk, Sally. (2005). Diseases Can Bewitch Durum Millers.
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Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
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Forbes, Thomas R. (1962). "Midwifery and Witchcraft".
419:. Features an on-screen appearance by Linnda Caporeal.
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Medical and psychological explanations of bewitchment
193:, induced PTSD in some of the "afflicted" accusers.
559:Witches & Historians: Interpretations of Salem
497:Poisons of the Past: Molds, Epidemics, and History
484:Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
473:24; 194 (4272): 1390-1394 (December 1976).
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410:PBS Secrets of the Dead: "The Witches Curse"
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617:, p. 10. New York: George Braziller.
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633:, p. 39. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
555:American Journal of Diseases of Children
507:). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
133:is a plant disease caused by the fungus
432:, Second Quarter 2005, pp. 44-45.
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378:1951 Pont-Saint-Esprit mass poisoning
181:Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
37:, especially as exhibited during the
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644:Journal of Interdisciplinary History
227:Hysteria and psychosomatic disorders
486:, 19 (4): 358-369, (Oct 1983).
399:, 38 (4): 457-60, (July 2000).
569:). Malbar, FL: Kreiger Publishing.
541:. Stratford, CT: John E. Edwards.
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351:from at least as far back as the
60:jealousy, spite, or a need for
27:Reported symptom of bewitchment
678:The American Historical Review
537:Beard, George M. 1971 (1882).
516:Carlson, Laurie Winn. (1999).
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580:The Salem Witch Trials Reader
204:posttraumatic stress disorder
528:). Chicago, IL: Ivan R. Dee
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680:. 75 (5): 1311-1326.
613:Chadwick Hansen. (1969).
629:Marion Starkey. (1949).
543:See copy at Google Books
316:psychological projection
233:Mass psychogenic illness
117:published an article in
175:encephalitis lethargica
448:, 192 (2 April 1976).
252:psychosomatic disorder
189:, concurrent with the
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599:. New York: Vintage.
597:In the Devil's Snare
499:, pp. 113-122 (
241:Hysterical contagion
185:It is possible that
95:, commonly known as
719:European witchcraft
714:Medicine in society
709:American witchcraft
615:Witchcraft at Salem
397:Clinical Toxicology
353:Early Modern period
349:European witchcraft
159:Poisons of the Past
659:, 194 (4272).
646:, 30 (4): 577
457:2015-09-24 at the
415:2014-04-19 at the
191:Salem witch trials
136:Claviceps purpurea
115:Linnda R. Caporael
92:Claviceps purpurea
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39:Salem witch trials
187:King Philip's War
16:(Redirected from
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561:, 2nd ed. (
299:pinch marks
221:combination
43:witch-hunts
35:bewitchment
703:Categories
674:John Demos
384:References
373:Witchcraft
361:nightshade
311:John Demos
309:Historian
305:Projection
231:See also:
357:monkshood
321:scapegoat
216:elite men
62:attention
455:Archived
413:Archived
367:See also
247:hysteria
200:hysteria
195:Wabanaki
108:ergotism
657:Science
471:Science
446:Science
328:others.
120:Science
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64:
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51:factors
31:Medical
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408:Video
239:, and
212:Salem
126:Ergot
97:ergot
563:ISBN
522:ISBN
501:ISBN
359:and
295:bite
202:and
520:, (
297:or
130:Rye
128:of
104:LSD
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604:^
363:.
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66:—
55:—
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