Светецът и трактовката на лудостта в традиционната култура
Cristian Saints and the Treatment of ‘Madness’ in Traditional Balkan Orthodox Cultures

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with the specialization of Christian Orthodox saints in the healing procedures applied to the so-called „ill in their soul“, and more generally in the treatment of madness. Starting from cases involving the cults of St. Therapont and St. Anton, I try to delineate the common characteristics of saints functioning as healers of this special category of people, or to prevent from going mad. Scrutinizing the complex relationship between saints, closure and ‘mad people’, I show that theories explaining psychic perturbations as loss of social and/or sexual identity (G. Charuty 1997) and the treatment of madness as social control, grounded on the experience and work in Catholic cultures, can apply also to the Balkan Orthodox cultures.

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