Dionysus the Greek God of Wine and wine-making, passion and fertility, dance and music, represented the spontaneous and unrestrained aspects of human experience. When it comes to Greek Mythology, Dionysus was adapted from religious traditions of non-Greek peoples in the greater Mediterranean world.
Today, a Person that ancient Greeks would describe as possessed by Dionysus we call an alcoholic, a manic-depressive, a schizoid… The nominalistic approach of scientific faculties failed to come near the Greek vision of the psyche and its pathologies. The whole practice of psychopathology came down to mastering the technical vocabulary which labels people without going into the depths of the affliction itself.
This practice of labeling and categorizing stretches all the way to Enlightenment and its dream to classify the world of the mind itself like the world of animals and plants. As these schools used different terms there was a famous disagreement between the Germans and the French in regard to hysteria. The Germans argued that it could only appear in women because the word hysteria meant uterus, while the French argued that they found cases of hysteria in men too. The response of Germans was that this said more about the French men than hysteria itself.
In the book Re-visioning psychology, James Hillman states:
“…Labels like psychopath or manic-depressive, while bringing intellectual clarity also seal off in closed jars the content of what is named and the person so named is relegated to a shelf marked abnormal psychology”
#Dionysus #GreekMythology #Mythology
Here at HermesHub, we share a wide range of interests ranging from mythology and history to psychology and philosophy, while having a great time at gaming. I’m quite open to new experiences and your suggestions on what kind of videos I should make.
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