Passions and Tempers: A History of the HumoursHarper Collins, 2007 M05 29 - 376 pages The humours—blood, phlegm, black bile, and choler—were substances thought to circulate within the body and determine a person's health, mood, and character. For example, an excess of black bile was considered a cause of melancholy. The theory of humours remained an inexact but powerful tool for centuries, surviving scientific changes and offering clarity to physicians. This one-of-a-kind book follows the fate of these variable and invisible fluids from their Western origin in ancient Greece to their present-day versions. It traces their persistence from medical guidebooks of the past to current health fads, from the testimonies of medical doctors to the theories of scientists, physicians, and philosophers. By intertwining the histories of medicine, science, psychology, and philosophy, Noga Arikha revisits and revises how we think about all aspects of our physical, mental, and emotional selves. |
Contents
6 | |
14 | |
21 | |
29 | |
37 | |
THE CLASSICAL TRAIL | 43 |
Hunayn ibnIshaq and the Translators | 50 |
Religion and Emotion | 57 |
Musical Therapy | 126 |
Artistic Astrology | 130 |
Paracelsus and the Magic of Nature | 135 |
Corpses Books and Reputations | 139 |
Beauty Beneath the Skin | 143 |
New Bodies Old Science | 151 |
Diagnosing Melancholy | 155 |
LoveMaladies | 159 |
New Departures | 61 |
Persian Insights | 64 |
Out of Spain | 68 |
MIRACULOUS MEDICINE Western Middle Ages Fifth to Fourteenth Centuries | 71 |
Faith and Healing | 73 |
Scholasticism and Humoural Care | 78 |
Old Convictions | 80 |
The High and the Low | 83 |
Outsiders | 87 |
Bloody Treatments | 89 |
Verbena Olives and Herbal Power | 92 |
Apothecaries Alchemists and Amulets | 96 |
Airs Waters Places Diets | 98 |
Fearful Epidemics | 104 |
Life After Death | 109 |
RENAISSANCE BODIES AND MELANCHOLY SOULS Renaissance Fifteenth Century to Early Seventeenth Century | 111 |
Hypochondria at Court | 113 |
The Black Sun | 115 |
Mind Matter and Metaphysics | 120 |
Cosmic Attunement | 124 |
Uterine Fury and Satyriasis | 162 |
AntiMelancholy Antidotes | 167 |
New Science Old Bodies | 173 |
Atoms and Humours | 179 |
Harveys Blood | 187 |
AntiHumours | 195 |
Medical Secrets and Popular Healers | 202 |
PASSIONS AND NERVES | 213 |
The Sensitive Soul | 220 |
Enlightened Thinkers OldFashioned Doctors and | 227 |
Nervous Juice | 235 |
Modern Humours | 243 |
Mesmerism | 249 |
Brain Localization | 258 |
CONTEMPORARY HUMOURS | 269 |
Brain Images and Body Image | 280 |
The Regimen Returns | 295 |
References | 329 |
Picture Credits | 352 |