I'm just starting this series, which I'm very excited to work through. Maybe you address this later on, but I'm currently working on a project that involves research into medieval approaches to madness, and have found that numerous saints became associated with the cure of mental affliction or exorcism for extremely superficial reasons. St Front of Périgueax has the French word for forehead in his name and became a saint for madness. St. Symphorien was beheaded for refusing to worship Venus and did as well. Given that, my guess is that Dymphna's beheading was the (admittedly superficial) symbolic link between her and madness/exorcism.
There are quite a few explanations floating around for why Dymphna is associated with madness. When I was looking into them, I was still naively expecting them to have some logical sense to them, so I'm sure I would assess them differently now. I don't recall people mentioning the beheading. This is perhaps because the region is lousy with beheaded virgin saints. Soon you'll get to a (very abbreviated) account of some other relevant saints.
Unsettling. As I spend more time with elderly relatives who have dementia, I agree that removing the stigma and having a community approach to care would help greatly. I realize a lot of people with dementia lack self-insight due to the disease but the need to hide their condition predates that stage, and is rational if not helpful in our culture.
I'm seeing more shops, cafes, and museums offering special times for people with various disabilities and/or encouraging people to make their access needs clear so they can make adjustments in order to welcome everyone. Given the number of people with dementia, I think most people are at least a little bit familiar with how to be supportive.
Yes, good points. I found many ‘front of house’ staff excellent: taxi drivers, wait staff, supermarket staff etc. Truly supportive and respectful. People who knew the person socially ‘before’ seem to struggle the most. Which also makes sense.
I'm just starting this series, which I'm very excited to work through. Maybe you address this later on, but I'm currently working on a project that involves research into medieval approaches to madness, and have found that numerous saints became associated with the cure of mental affliction or exorcism for extremely superficial reasons. St Front of Périgueax has the French word for forehead in his name and became a saint for madness. St. Symphorien was beheaded for refusing to worship Venus and did as well. Given that, my guess is that Dymphna's beheading was the (admittedly superficial) symbolic link between her and madness/exorcism.
There are quite a few explanations floating around for why Dymphna is associated with madness. When I was looking into them, I was still naively expecting them to have some logical sense to them, so I'm sure I would assess them differently now. I don't recall people mentioning the beheading. This is perhaps because the region is lousy with beheaded virgin saints. Soon you'll get to a (very abbreviated) account of some other relevant saints.
I'd love to hear more about your work!
Unsettling. As I spend more time with elderly relatives who have dementia, I agree that removing the stigma and having a community approach to care would help greatly. I realize a lot of people with dementia lack self-insight due to the disease but the need to hide their condition predates that stage, and is rational if not helpful in our culture.
I'm seeing more shops, cafes, and museums offering special times for people with various disabilities and/or encouraging people to make their access needs clear so they can make adjustments in order to welcome everyone. Given the number of people with dementia, I think most people are at least a little bit familiar with how to be supportive.
Yes, good points. I found many ‘front of house’ staff excellent: taxi drivers, wait staff, supermarket staff etc. Truly supportive and respectful. People who knew the person socially ‘before’ seem to struggle the most. Which also makes sense.