Abstract

TROPE, Hélène. The Inquisition face to madness in Spain in the XVI and XVII centuries (I): Manifestations, treatments and hospitals. Rev. Asoc. Esp. Neuropsiq. [online]. 2010, vol.30, n.2, pp.291-310. ISSN 2340-2733.

This article, based on the inquisitorial documents of Archivo Histórico Nacional analyses the inquisitors' and their assistants' madness point of view and, in some cases, how they used it to silence certain attitudes in the XVI and XVII centuries. In the first part of the article, madness manifestations and treatments are studied in the inquisitorial field. Mad defendant cases are analysed, essentially those ones, inquisitors did not consider to be politically dangerous because the defendants were not susceptible of spreading their ideas or making rivals. Besides, regarding mad defendants' admission, the strained relationship between the Toledo inquisitors and the chapter, on which this town's mental hospital (Hospital del Nuncio) depended, is also mentioned.

Keywords : Symptoms; treatments; melancholy; mania; torture; the Hospital del Nuncio de Toledo mental hospital.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )