Psychological explanations of the Salem Witch Hunts
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The psychological explanations of the Salem Witch Hunts are link to several psychological ailments. Extensive research over the years of the odd and erratic behavior that was displayed by the afflicted individuals of Salem, has been linked to mental disorders. These psychological ailments, according to the work of several scholars, are the main reasons for the causation of the Salem Phenomenon.
HYSTERIA
The first to suggest that psychological ailments caused the Salem Crisis was Chadwick Hansen, in his book titled Witchcraft at Salem. Hansen’s research revolves around the mental disorder known as hysteria. He states the symptoms displayed by the afflicted in Salem, are recognized as classic cases of hysteria. Therefore the victims that experienced this phenomenon were suffering from a hysterical disorder[1]. Hysteria, then explains the odd behavior the girls were displaying in the community of Salem. Hansen also writes:
"...The Hysterical hallucinations of the afflicted persons were confirmed by some concrete evidence of actual witchcraft and by many confessions, the majority of them [were] also hysterical"
[2].
The fact that the girls acted in a hysterical manner, makes their confessions as well as fits a by product of their hysteria.
PSYCHOSOMATIC DISORDERS
In 1976, psychologists Nicholas P. Spanos and Jack Gottlieb published an articled in the scholarly journal Science. In this article they dismiss the theory of Ergotism proposed by Linda Caporael and proposed the theory of psychosomatic. Spanos and Gottlieb explain that the afflicted girls were enacting the roles that maintained their definition of themselves as bewitched and this in return lead to the conviction of many of the accused[3]. The symptoms produced by specters, such as bites, pinches and pricks, derived from a social circumstance. These symptoms were typically apparent throughout the community and caused an internal disease process. The common fits that were triggered by the social cues when the accused were in the presences of the afflicted, is an example of internal ailments[4].
Edward Bever, adds to this theory in an article published in the Journal of Interdisciplinary History. Bever writes:
"...[the] psychological process seem to influence physical health in three ways. The first involves several types of disease known as somatoform disorders, in which somatic symptoms appear either without any organic disorder of without organic damage that can account for the severity of the symptoms…A second type, conversion disorders, involves organically inexplicable malfunctions in motor and sensory systems. The third type, pain disorder, involves sensation either in the absence of an organic problem of in excess of actual physical damage"
[5].
Salem residents became so infatuated with the thought that the devil was inflicting their lives that psychosomatic disorders begun to occur. The disorders were manifested into the painful fits and seizures of the afflicted in Salem.
PROJECTION
John Demos proposed that the psychological process of projection could explain the violent fits the girls were experiencing in Salem during 1692. He states that the active belief of witchcraft was hard to deal with by the puritan citizens. Aggression became an outlet for them, which was projected onto the afflicted. The violent fits and the physical attacks in the court room, are examples of how projection was displayed[6].
 Fits being played out in the Salem Court Rooms |
ENCIPHILIS LETHARGICA
Enciphilis Lethargica, according to Laurie Winn Carlson, was responsible for the unexplained physical and neurological behavior that was displayed in Salem. This epidemic reappeared in Europe in 1918 spread throughout the world until 1930.[7]
Carlson writes the following concerning the descriptions of the court room incidendents:
"The ‘pricking and pinching’ repeated so often in the court records at Salem can be explained by the way patients’ skin surfaces exhibited twitches-quick, short, flutering sequences of contractions of muscle bundles. Cold temperatures causes them to increase in number and spread throughout the body. Red marks that bleed through the skin’s surface would explain the many references in court documents suspected bites made by witches"
[8].
To New England Puritans, the sudden appearance of red skin marks and abrupt twitching that the individuals in Salem displayed, caused psychological disturbance. Since the colonist could not explain the unexpected symptoms they panic and resulted to witchcraft as an explanation for the unknown.
[edit] References
1. Hansen, Chadwick. Witchcraft at Salem. New York: George Brazillier, 1969. 1
2. Hansen,Chadwick. Witchcraft at Salem. New York: George Brazillier, 1969. 117
3. Spanos P. Nicholas , and Jack Gottlieb. "Ergotism and the Salem Village Witch Trials." Science 194, no. 4272 (1976). 1391
4. Spanos P. Nicholas, and Jack Gottlieb. "Ergotism and the Salem Village Witch Trials." Science 194, no. 4272 (1976). 1391
5. Demos, John. "Underlying Themse in the Witchcraft of Seventh-Century New England." The American Historical Review 75, no. 5 (1970). 1322
6. Bever, Edward "Witchcraft Fears and Psychosocial Factors in Disease." Journal of Interdisciplinary History 30, no. 4 (2000). 577
7. Carlson, W. Laurie. A Fever in Salem: A New Interpretation of the New England Witch Trials. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1999. xvi
8. Carlson, W. Laurie. A Fever in Salem: A New Interpretation of the New England Witch Trials. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1999. 125
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