Possessed by Hardship

Posted on April 25, 2006 in Reading Stigma

….in my childhood I often happened to see and hear these “possessed” women in the villages and monasteries. They used to be brought to mass; they would squeal and bark like a dog so that they were heard all over the church. But when the sacrament was carried in and they were led up to it, at once the “possession” ceased, and the sick women were always soothed for a time.I was greatly impressed and amazed at this as a child; but then I heard from country neighbors and from my town teachers that the whole illness was simulated to avoid work, and that it could always be cured by suitable severity; various anecdotes were told to confirm this. But later on I learnt with astonishment from medical specialists that there is no pretense about it, that it is a terrible illness to which the women are subject, specially prevalent among us in Russia, and it is due to the hard lot of the peasant women. It is a disease I was told, arising from exhausting toil too soon after hard, abnormal, and unassisted labour in childbirth, and from the hopeless misery, from beatings, and so on, which some women were not able to endure like others.

Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

I mark the similarity between how American folk culture (including Scientologists and conservative Christians) and the Russians of Dostoevsky’s time see mental illness in this passage. Note, too, how the medical professionals’ attitude resemble those of our own: that we are not malingers, but suffer from genuine pain. “Some women are not able to endure like others” is true now as it was then. Did Dostoevsky see the connection between these women and some of the men in this book?

Stress, yes, stress propels many a hidden bipolar into becoming a real one. And once potentiated, we return again and again, screaming and running about, only to be calmed temporarily by the solemn ceremonies of our priests and doctors.

If you want to understand what causes people to grow calm in the presence of these healers, I give you one word: kindness.