Abstract

ORDORIKA SACRISTAN, Teresa. ¿Herejes o locos?. Cuicuilco [online]. 2009, vol.16, n.45, pp.137-161. ISSN 0185-1659.

The trials conducted by the Holy Office that operated in the Iberian Peninsula the XVII century contain descriptions and examples that can be used to study some of the elements of the representation of madness that prevailed during that period. These sources allow us to analyze different aspects associated with this condition such as: how diseases of the soul were characterized, how madness differed from sanity, the relationship between one and the other, the methods used to distinguish between one and the other, as well as the relationship between legal, medical and social discourses regarding this condition. The main concern expressed in these trials was to establish the difference between real and feigned madness. The analysis of these documents shows that the two elements that were generally used by witnesses, inquisitors and doctors in an effort to determine the existence of madness were behavior and speech.

Keywords : madness; diseases of the soul; Spanish Inquisition; heresy, mania; melancholy; phrenitis.

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