VIRUS Band 15, pp. 127-150, 2020/07/22
Schwerpunkt: Medizin und Religion
Against the background of collective Catholic piety, the healing of the so-called insane was perceived as a problem of high significance in early 19th century-Tyrol. Patients’ files highlight that religiousness and religious practices formed a focal point of medical observation andanamnesis. In general, besides confession practices and the severe influence of confessors, religious reading and preaching were often blamed for the onset of mental illnesses. For this paper a representative sample of patients’ files has been analysed in order to examine the manifold relations between broadly criticised religious practices and medicine more closely. The therapeutic use of religion in everyday psychiatric practice is finally focused on in a concluding chapter.
Keywords: Psychiatry, religious melancholy, religious practices, Catholicism, piety, pious reading, penitential sermons, patients’ files, early 19th century, Tyrol
