Self-Help from the Middle Ages; What the Seven Deadly Sins Can Teach Us About Living

Historian Jones debuts with an illuminating and eclectic survey of how medieval thinkers grappled with perennial psychological challenges through the framework of the seven deadly sins. Drawn to the topic when his own “burnout, disillusionment, and... melancholy” made him wonder how someone from 700 years ago would have weathered a similar crisis, Jones delved into art and literature of the High and Later Middle Ages—from 1100 to 1500 CE—a period he suggests was uniquely preoccupied with “understanding the human mind.” Thirteenth-century Parisian theologian Jean de la Rochelle thought each of the sins was “a form of distorted love” that tips over into disorder when “we feel it too strongly,” and in the 14th century Petrarch framed envy as an emotion with positive characteristics—curiosity, obsessiveness—that might be harnessed “to achieve something... useful.” Catalonian doctor Arnaud de Vilanova (1240–1311) experimented with a series of ineffective drugs for treating anger, including one potion made of ox tongue and wine purported to cure rage overnight by balancing the body’s four humours, while working to fortify his heart with “love and compassion” to prevent anger from taking root. Throughout, the author interweaves colorful details of medieval therapies with a compassionate commentary on how the “most intimate struggles of our lives” are part of a quest to understand the human condition that’s existed for nearly as long as humanity itself. This captivates. (Apr.)