Area of Science:

• History of Medicine
• Religious Studies
• Psychiatry

Background:

• The 19th century saw increasing pathologization of religion.
• Clergy engaged with emerging psychiatric concepts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how French clergy appropriated psychiatric terminology.
• To understand the distinction between authentic and deviant religious experiences.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of medical and theological manuals.
• Examination of priests' reports on female mystics.

Main Results:

• Clergy used psychiatric terms to create an opposition between hysteria and saintliness.
• Medical rhetoric helped define acceptable religious experiences for the Catholic Church.

Conclusions:

• The appropriation of medical rhetoric by clergy served to delineate the boundaries of approved religious experiences.
• This practice influenced the Catholic Church's perception and regulation of mystical phenomena.