Tormented by sinful thoughts in seventeenth-century England

Abstract

ABSTRACT In seventeenth-century England, many religiously devout people believed they had an obligation to immediately stifle any sinful thought that entered their minds. As some prominent clerics during the time period recognised, however, the effort to subdue unwelcome thoughts often can increase the thoughts. Indeed, recent cognitive science research bears out the counterintuitive phenomenon that trying to suppress an undesired thought can boomerang. With this in mind, just how effective was the endeavour in seventeenth-century England to purify thoughts? The paper argues that it was frequently counterproductive. The paper also explores a disagreement among mental health professionals, historians, and literary scholars regarding how to interpret the numerous seventeenth-century English autobiographical descriptions of tormenting, uncontrollable sinful thoughts. For instance, were the ungovernable blasphemous thoughts that Pilgrim's Progress author John Bunyan (1628-1688) recounted experiencing the product of a bodily illness equivalent to obsessive-compulsive disorder? The question presents methodological challenges.