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houseoffantasists · 8 years

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Welcome back, I'm so happy to see you posting again! I've got medieval-ish fantasy setting and two characters with anxiety and grief-induced depression, respectively. I haven't been able to find any resources about how these conditions might be handled in the middle ages, nor am I sure how they could seek treatment since they don't have access to counseling or modern medications. Any tips?

Culture is everything.

I say that because the time period can be largely irrelevant where attitudes towards mental illness/treatment are concerned. Historically, different cultures had very different ways of perceiving and assisting people going through such things. Some saw lingering grief as a demon, others a sickness in the soul.

The one thing that seems to pervade most cultures’ perception of this sort of thing is what the cause is thought to be. Anxiety can be caused by an event, certainly, but some people simply suffer with it because of genetic or chemical factors.

It’s important to note that some cultures actually had a very progressive method of treatment. During the Golden Age of Islam, for example, psychiatric cases were exclusively handled in hospitals as early as the 8th century. We’re not talking about barbaric treatments in this case, either; arts, music, baths, meditation and occupational therapy were all part of recovery. They believed that the body had four humors, which were bodily fluids identified as blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm. An imbalance of these humors was thought to cause psychosis and psychological problems. This meant that such imbalances could be treated, and in many cases medicated, to bring about the right balance in a person.

So, if you want to write realistically, it doesn’t have to be a case of, “By the Maker! He won’t stop crying, he’s possessed!”. Grief was a very common emotion and the after-effects would have been well known. The further we go back in history, the more likely it is that people would experience grief often and unexpectedly. How grief is expressed ‘appropriately’ varies from people to people. Some cultures demanded dignity whilst others expected passion and full expression. Anxiety is curious because it’s a fairly recent ‘discovery’ despite being present in humans for thousands upon thousands of years.

I’ve popped some resources at the bottom of the post, but I think you can answer most of your question with the internal logic of your world and some serious consideration on how it works there.

I think you’ll need to consider:

- What are the societal norms and does the character break them? If so, how would this culture and its people respond? Are they well educated or ignorant?

- Is there a spiritual element to this culture? Is there a belief in life after death as comfort? What does your character think has happened?

- How does your character experience anxiety? How do the people around them experience your character’s anxiety? How does it look to them based on their own perception and understanding of the world?

- Are there any scholars/academics/doctors who have specialist knowledge of these things? Could they realistically seek treatment?

- What level of scientific understanding does the world at large have? Has it compartmentalised the body into certain ‘zones’, like chakras, or noted any important features, like humors?

- Is there conflict between religious and scientific approaches? Which one is the dominant theory? How would treatment approaches vary?

- Beware the cure. Sometimes we want our characters to feel better so badly that by the end of the book, instead of overcoming their challenges, we’ve located a deus ex machina to cure them. These are big hurdles and will be important building blocks for your story. It’s important that you show the struggle without taking away from a message of hope (if that’s your goal, of course, if you want to George R. R. Martin your way to happiness, by all means, go ahead!).

This is a great resource for some reading on the subject:

http://www.abrahamkuypercenter.vu.nl/en/Images/Gerrit-Glas-A-conceptual-history-of-anxiety-and-depression_tcm213-318357.pdf

As long as you answer the questions above and combine it with your understanding of how your characters are experiencing their difficulties, I think you’ll do just fine.

And finally, thank you, it’s great to be back. If I’ve been too vague or you need more discussion on this, please hit my inbox again. :)

- LSK

#writing help #writing tips #writing advice #askthehouse #worldbuilding #character development

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