Assignment MT 4.2

Strange Actions= Illness
Strange Actions = Possessions

Metaphorically describing strange actions as an illness is looking at these actions as a medical condition. Describing strange actions as a possession is looking at it as a spiritual problem. If we think of strange actions as an illness, we think of the person with these symptoms as being able to be treated through medication, surgery, and therapy like Eve in “The Three Faces of Evil.” They are not at fault for this illness because these disorders are something people are born with and cannot be helped until discovered. If we were to live in the 1500’s of England, we would be living in an age where spirituality trumps science. Things that could not be answered and things out of the ordinary were seen as acts of The Devil. In “A True and Most Dreadful Discourse,” Margaret Cooper was found to be speaking “Idle” terms therefore she was thought to be possessed. Her husband being worried, asked upon God to help cure her of her possession,

“…he persuaded her to call upon God, and that being the creature of God she should not forget to call upon her Creator in the day of trouble: wherefore he counseled her to pray with him, and to say the Lord's Prayer after him, which she partly did: Yet the devil who always both builds his Chapel so near as he may to [fear?] God's Church, began to withdraw her from Prayer…”

Margaret could not be medically diagnoses in the 1500’s because the technology did not exist. The only thing that seemed most logical to Stephen Cooper was to see this as an act of the Devil. The main difference between thinking of “strange actions” as an illness and “strange actions” as a possession is that “strange actions” as a possession cannot be medically diagnoses and treated, but can only be cured by prayer and a cry for help to God. Also, people with “strange actions” as possessions are seen to be at fault because they have renounced their faith and God in someway as opposed to being born with it and not having fault if you see “strange actions” as a illness. Therefore Eve would not be held accountable for her “strange actions” because she was born with this disorder as opposed to Margaret. Margaret would be at fault because of her actions of questioning her faith.
I think Ian Hacking would say both of these women are wrong in what truly afflicts them. He argues that disorders and conditions are heavily exploited when they are discovered. He argues that multiple personality disorder is a “product of social circumstances, a culturally permissible way to express distress or unhappiness.” He believes that “Once we have that idea, we have a very powerful tool for making up people, or, indeed, for making up ourselves.” Hacking mentions that only since 1972, multiple personality disorder was considered just a curiosity and only a dozen cases were reported. A decade later, the count exploded and hundreds and thousands of people were being diagnosed. He ponders why might this be? Margaret and Eve would be wrong in their claims through Hacking’s eyes because he believes “the soul that we are constantly constructing we construct according to an explanatory model of how we came to be the way we are.” They are just using “culturally permissible” ways to express their distress and unhappiness.