Abstract

ALONSO-FERNANDEZ, Francisco. Personal history of the nun Theresa of Jesus. Salud Ment [online]. 2013, vol.36, n.5, pp.361-366. ISSN 0185-3325.

This book is classified according to the topic and the method respectively as "mysticism and psychopathology" and as "psychohistory" or "personal history". Nobody knew until the twentieth century that the Saint nun Theresa of Jesus came from a jewish family. She was a little and young girl terrified by hell and the Inquisition and mortified by a serious depressive disorder associated with hysterical comorbidity of psychomotor type. At he age of 40, our nun became the Spanish mystic number one: a mysticism of passion illustrated with experiences in form of hallucinated fantasies. Her Christian existential development was very influenced by these factors: the disparity between her parents, the self-repression of her Hebrew lineage, her cyclothymic temperament and a strong erotic tendency.

Keywords : Saint Theresa; psychohistory; mysticism; psychopatology.