Demonic Possession

In the late Middle Ages, a Christian form of demonic possession theory took hold. The devil was assumed to possess individuals, either with or without the victim's consent. Eventually, the Catholic Church established a system, called the Inquisition, that tried, convicted, and executed the possessed. Possession could be implicit or involuntary, and in such cases God was punishing people for their sins. Possession could also be explicit or voluntary. Here people entered into pacts with the devil, usually trading earthly gains for the price of their souls. The theme of such possession has a long literary history, from Faust on. Modern literature and even popular music still echo that theme as in the Charlie Daniels hit, "The devil went down to Georgia (looking for a soul to steal ....)." In that song, the country-boy fiddler outwits the devil, but in the Middle Ages the inquisitor usually won. Goldiamond (personal communication) states that as many as a million or more may have been executed by inquisitors over a period of many years. However, other estimates are much lower. He further argues that the Inquisition yielded the Church much property and goods from the estates of the victims, especially in continental Europe. In the British Isles, many fewer were tried as witches. Goldiamond attributes the difference to the English system of law, where defendants were innocent until proven guilty (as in the system in the USA). However, most continental countries had legal systems where defendants had to prove their innocence.

Malleus Malificarum, or Hammer for Witches, was the first handbook of clinical psychology, in a way. It was written by two Austrian monks, and it specified how to identify and deal with the possessed. Some of its treatments included burning at the stake and dismemberment (being pulled apart by having horses attached to each limb, for instance). Even colonial America was not immune. The famous Salem witch trials were an example of a similar way of dealing with abnormal behavior.

Abnormal behavior shows historically based symptoms. For example, in the Middle Ages, whole villages would be affected by mass hysteria in the form of dancing sickness. The villagers would dance themselves into exhaustion over a period of several days. The Italian song, "La tarantella," is an example of the music that inspired such behavior. Before you think that such episodes are past us, they are not. You may read about or see on the TV news stories about all of the workers in an entire building falling sick at the same time. Very often, no physical cause for the illness can be ascertained. Those instances are examples of modern mass hysteria.

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