The Typology and Aetiology of Madness in Ancient Greek Medical and Philosophical Writing

Abstract

This chapter engages with a selection of fundamental texts in the chronological order of their composition to bring out as far as possible what was constant and what changed in the classification and explanation of manifestations of insanity physicians and philosophers in ancient Greece. The examination of two texts from the Hippocratic Corpus shows that the typology of insanity was binary: two opposite excesses are defined relative to a median equilibrium. At one extreme is a type of madness that, from its low-energy nature, is called a depressive madness. At the other is hyperactive madness. The chapter talks about Plato’s Timaeus , the fundamental text regarding illnesses of the soul. Concerning aetiology, the elemental explanation given in On Regimen is a remarkable exception in the Hippocratic Corpus, in which humoral theory is predominant. In his Timaeus Plato adds a supplementary vision to bipolarity of insanity and its aetiology. Keywords:aetiology; ancient Greek; Hippocratic corpus; medical writing; On Regimen ; philosophical writing; Plato; Timaeus ; typology