Medicine, magic, and the
scientific revolution
Dr Matthew Broome
Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
University of Warwick
Content of session
The scientific revolution
 Yates and the Rosicrucian Enlightenment
 Elizabethan Magi and Psychiatrists
 Echoes in the 20th century
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Discussion of readings.
The scientific revolution i
“There was no such thing as the Scientific
Revolution, and this is a book about it.”
Steven Shapin (1996, 1).
 Simply, Copernicus (1473 -1543) to
Newton (1643 -1727)
 Shift from Aristotelian and Scholastic
physics.
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The scientific revolution ii
Crucial idea that laws of nature on earth
could be applied to the heavens (Galileo).
 Sun, stars, and planets – no change or
imperfection. Uniform circular motion.
 Galileo’s sunspots.
 Copernican solar system and overturning
of Ptolemy.

The scientific revolution iii
Teleological views of nature being
replaced by mechanical model. Clock
metaphor.
 Descartes ‘there is no difference between
the machines built by artisans and the
diverse bodies that nature alone
composes.’
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The scientific revolution iv
Style
 Gentlemanly, dispassionate, modest.
 Arguments re: experimentation, detail of
methods (Boyle vs. Newton).
 Particular instances and induction.
 Patronage vs. universities, church.
 Bacon, science and the state: ‘Solomon’s
House’. Extension of knowledge and of
power.

Natural magic tradition
Mechanical philosophers contrasted
themselves with those who espoused
occult powers.
 Sympathy, attraction, repulsion.
 Means by which acted not specifiable by
ordinary ‘manifest’ properties of sensible
matter.
 Human body (microcosm) and universe
(macrocosm).

Hermeticism
Egyptian god Thoth identified with Greek
Hermes. Called ‘thrice great’.
 ‘Hermes Trismegistus’ author of literature
around astrology, occult, sympathetic
magic. Mistakenly thought to be ancient
Egyptian but Hermetica date from AD
100-300. Multiple unknown Greek
authors.

Crossover of traditions
Kepler – astrologist
 Bacon and Boyle – celestial influences
 Newton – alchemy and cabala.

Empiricism of scientists also seen in
natural magicians: reading the ‘Book of
Nature’.
 Prior to the Fall: pure and uncorrupted
knowledge.

Yates’ Renaissance
Frances Yates 1899 -1981.
 Importance of Hermetic thought in
European culture and the development of
science.
 ‘Rosicrucian’ example of Dr John Dee
1527 -1609. Alchemy, cabala, hermeticism.
 Bacon, Newton.
 Dee’s influence on Elizabethan England,
Sidney, politics, and poetry.

Yates’ Renaissance ii
Magic was mathematics and mechanism in
lower world, celestial mathematics in
heavens, and angelic conjuration in supercelestial world.
 Turning towards scientific enquiry was
inspired by Hermetic-Cabbalist religious
attitudes (Yates on Giordano Bruno).
 Idea of Enlightenment and new
illumination

Yates’ Renaissance iii
Rosicrucian enlightenment: reform of
society, education and religion.
 Spenser’s Faerie Queen example of Deeinspired poetry. Expansionist vision of
empire, Raleigh.
 Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus as riposte.
Conception of Hermetic philosophy as
black magic.
 Aimed at Puritan Christian Cabalists like
Dee.

Historical Notions of Insanity
Aretaeus
30-90
Galen
130-200
Cullen
1710-90
Delirium
Phrenitis
Phrenitis
Mania
corporea
Dementia
Senile
dementia
Moria
Amentia
senilis
Depression
Melancholia
Melancholia
Pinel
1745-1826
Dementia
Melancholia
Mania
Ordinary,
Schizophrenia recurrent or
divine mania
Mania
Mania
mentalis and
Mania
obscura
Mania with or
without
delusional
state
Development
Anoia
Amentia
congenita
Idiocy
Richard Napier
One of last Renaissance magi.
 Practicing priest and physician who treated
over 2000 patients with mental illness
between 1597-1634.
 Treated 5-15 patients/day. Detailed
questioning and use of astrology.
 Mopish, mad, lunatic, troubled in mind,
melancholy.
 Lesser disorders distinguished from more
serious by less frequent violence and rage.

17th century explanations for mental
illness
Natural and supernatural.
 Napier and his clients tended to employ
multiple causes. Immediate cause, linked to
temperament and stars.
 Physical health and social relationships.
 Treatments focused on restoring natural
order. Astrology guided timing of medicine,
purges, letting, and vomits + allowed influence
over sprits.

The 20th century i
Rivers – medicine grew out of magic and
religion
 Mental factors in aetiology of disorder
 Mesmer and hypnotism in 18th century
 Materialism viewed it as form of
‘magnetism’.
 Charcot and Freud.
 Move to free association and
psychoanalysis.

The 20th century ii
Freud’s development of the
unconsciousness allowed him to use strict
notions of determinism in psychology:
analogy to physical science (hydraulic
model).
 Strict law of causation and psychical
deteminism.
 Leads to deep probing into history of
patient.

Magus legend (adapted from E.M.
Butler The Myth of the Magus).
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Supernatural or
mysterious origin
Portents at birth
Perils menacing
infancy
Initiation
Distant wanderings
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Magical contest
Trial or prosecution
Last scene
Violent or
mysterious death
Resurrection and/or
ascension.
Readings for discussion

Extracts from
Macdonald’s book
detailing Napier’s
clinical work.

Extracts from Jung’s
autobiography
Memories, Dreams
and Reflections.
Suggested reading
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Steven Shapin 1996 The Scientific Revolution. The
University of Chicago Press.
Michael MacDonald 1981 Mystical Bedlam. Cambridge
University Press.
Lauren Kassell 2005. Medicine & Magic in Elizabethan
London. Oxford University Press.
W.H.R. Rivers 1924. Medicine, Magic and Religion.
Routledge.
Frances Yates 1972. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment.
Routledge.
Frances Yates 1979. The Occult Philosophy in the
Elizabethan Age. Routledge.
E.M. Butler 1948 The Myth of the Magus Cambridge
University Press.
C.G. Jung 1993. Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Fontana