Witchcraft, Religious Fanaticism and Schizophrenia -- Salem Revisited

By Thurman Sawyer and George Bundren

In the summer of 1692, Giles Corey was pressed to death because he refused to answer an indictment. Furthermore, some nineteen more souls perished because of the refusal to admit to alleged crimes they committed. Even two dogs were sentenced to death in the middle of the hysteria that broke out in Salem, Massachusetts. The crime they refused to admit to participating in, (or in the case of Corey not answering to) was the crime of witchcraft. These men and women died upon the sketchy and unreliable evidence brought before them in court. But what caused these Puritan people of Salem to execute their fellow friends and neighbors in the name of witchcraft?

We have discovered that the lost lives of the accused witches were the direct result of the Puritan religious fanaticism of the day. Fanaticism in religion occurs when one goes beyond strict adherence to his or her faith. It occurred in Salem when death resulted from closed minded adherence to religious teaching. The Puritans were fanatical only when they took the lives of people around them, whom they had known and interacted with for years, because of accusations of witchcraft.

In order for us to conclude our study of this event, we must consider several factors. The first section of this paper discusses the way in which Puritan life was totally dominated by religion, takes a look at the Puritan idea of the Devil, considers the behavior of the accused witches of Salem, and analyzes why the accused were sentenced to death. The second section of the paper will examine the possibility of schizophrenia, or mental illness, as playing a role in the Salem witchcraft episode. Let us begin.

SECTION 1

Puritan religious fanaticism was evident in Massachusetts a few years before 1692. In 1688, Goody Glover fell victim to the Puritan religious fanatics and lost her life. Consider the following:

Following an argument with laundress
Goody Glover, Martha Goodwin, 13, begins
exhibiting bizarre behavior. Days later her
younger brother and two sisters exhibit
similar behavior. Glover is arrested and
tried for bewitching the Goodwin children....
Glover is hanged (after refusing to confess
to the sin of witchcraft).[i]

Any scholar of American history, upon undertaking the study of Puritans, need not be extraordinarily perspicacious to understand that religion was the central focus of the Puritan way of life in the 1690s. "Religion was not a department or phase of social life; it was the end and aim of all life; and to it, consequently, all institutions were subordinate."[ii]

Puritans were entirely dependent on their religion to make sense of their seventeenth century, New England lives.

Instead of reading about it (life) in the
Sunday papers, as we do today, the old
Puritans had a quaint custom of making
history six days a week and, on the
seventh, going to meeting to hear theminister explain it.[iii]

One could argue that such religious fanaticism, or dependence on one's religion, could lead to a town's vulnerability to strange events. Indeed strange events were to strike the town of Salem, in a harsh manner, at the close of the seventeenth century.

The cause of the aforementioned strange events was in great part due to the responsibility of Puritan religious leaders. Such leaders were upheld by the community as knowing the will of God and therefore, responsible for manifesting it, no matter the consequences.

What was sheer fantasy in England
appeared to be a practical and literal
reality in New England, for here the
clergy were, as a matter of fact, the
first citizens and leading spirits;
here the social and political life
centered about the various
settlements and these settlements
were organized into congregations.[iv]

To fully understand the reason for the Puritans' adherence to their faith is to understand their elementary, or fundamental, beliefs surrounding their religion. Let us consider some of the basic tenets of Puritan religion (Puritanism) in the 1690s. Puritans believed that life was the story of man's constant struggle with evil and natural elements. John Davenport's sermon "The Saints' Anchor Hold In All Storms and Tempests" demonstrates this.

As the whole creation hath groaned
ever since its original subjection unto
vanity, earnestly expecting the
manifestation of the Sons of God: so
more especially in these latter days
the traveling pains thereof have
increased.[v]

The Devil presented the greatest enemy, and obstacle, to the Puritan belief. The Devil could prevent the Puritan from being closer to God, and
therefore they eliminated any and all ties to the Devil.
He (Puritan) wanted no more connection with
the Devil than he was born with; conscious of his
sinfulness, he wanted to repent, to exorcize the
Devil, to be prepared for the gift of grace if and
when it came.[vi]

A second basic tenet of Puritanism was obedience to the word of God. A significant means of ensuring that children would grow up in the faith of Puritanism was to install within them a great fear of God. Two popular biblical verses were utilized by the Puritans to strengthen the faith of the upcoming generation. These verses were favorites of James Fitch, a Puritan minister, in the 1670s. In 1679, John Foster captured two familiar passages from the Bible that were used extensively by Fitch:

Come ye children, hearken unto me,
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Philipians 32, 11

Hold fast the form of sound works
which thou hast heard of me, in faith
and love which is in Christ Jesus.[vii]
Second Timothy 1, 13

John Foster was able to publish several of the fundamental beliefs of Puritanism, during his time. An especially renowned teaching was the damnation of the wicked and the reward of the righteous. Foster recorded the sermon "The Sting of Death," by Dr. Leonard Hoard in 1680.

Within Hoard's sermon we can see two more basic Puritan teachings.

Like sheep they are laid in the grave,
death shall feed on them; and the
upright shall have dominion over them
in the morning, and their beauty shall
consume in the grave from their
dwelling....Say ye to the righteous, that
it shall be well with him, for they shall
eat the fruit of their doings.[viii]

Indeed, such teachings penetrated the psyche of seventeenth century Puritans and enforced cooperative behavior from the religious minded. As for the fundamental issue of witchcraft, there can be no doubt that the Puritans believed in witchcraft and its powers. “Toward the end of the seventeenth century, belief in the reality of witchcraft was virtually universal.”[ix] In the Bible, there are references to witchcraft, such as the Witch of Endore:

Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar
Spirit at En-dor. . .And the woman said unto
(King Saul) him, Behold, thou knowest what
Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those
that have familiar spirits , and the wizards,
out of the land: wherefore then layest thou
a snare for my life, to cause me to die?
First Samuel 28, 7-9

According to the first Mosaic laws, in dealing with witches, the law stated that:
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
Exodus 22, 18

The Puritans, therefore, were complying to Mosaic law when they
sentenced suspected witches to be hanged.

A final fundamental doctrine of Puritanism we must consider before moving on in our discussion on the cause of the deaths of the accused in Salem, was the tenant of church unity. We have seen that Salem was divided into two main factions: Pro-Parris and Anti-Parris. There was great disagreement in the town as to whether or not Samuel Parris should be the pastor of Salem village.[x] This disagreement placed the town in a position vulnerable to internal strife. What was the doctrine of church unity? According to the written publication of the elders and messengers of the Puritan churches in New England, church unity was the result of the understanding of, and adherence to, the following:

The setting forth of the public confession
of the faith of churches hath a double end,
and both tending to public edification: First,
the maintenance of the faith...Secondly, the
holding forth of unity and harmony both
amongst and with other churches....
especially we desire not to vary from the
doctrine of faith and truth held forth by the
churches of our native country.[xi]

The aforementioned fundamental tenants of Puritanism were upheld by all Puritans. To insure continued congruence with the faith, powerful pastors and ministers reiterated these beliefs exorbitantly. Two such ministers were Cotton Mather and the already mentioned, Samuel Parris. Both men contributed to the events in Salem and played an important role in the effects of the Salem witchcraft episode in American history, through their powerful teachings.[xii]

Cotton Mather was a proponent of the belief in witchcraft and the existence of the Devil. Mather, a third generation Puritan minister and a self-proclaimed authority on witchcraft, believed extensively in the attack of the Devil upon Salem. [xiii] In his "Memorable Providences" he wrote:

By the special disposal and providence
of the Almighty God, there now comes
abroad into the world a little history of
several very astonishing witchcrafts and
possessions...The Devils themselves are
by compulsion come to confute the Atheism
and Sadducism, and to reprove the
madness of ungodly men.[xiv]

We can easily determine, upon perusal of the above quotation, that Mather was a fervent believer in witchcraft and the Devil. Mather, in 1692, further demonstrated his belief in the supposed attack upon Salem in “The Wonders of the Invisible World.” Mather, according to this passage, discussed the motive for Satan’s attack on Salem:

The New-Englanders are a People of God
settled in those which were once the Devil’s
Territories; and it may easily be supposed that
the Devil was extremely disturbed when he
perceived such a People here accomplishing
the Promise of old made unto our Blessed Jesus,
That He should have the Utmost Parts of Earth
for his Possession.[xv]

Mather, in further defense of the witchcraft trials, tells of the end results if the Devil and the witches are not stopped from further attacks upon the Puritan people:

. .then give Notice of An Horrible Plot against the
Country by Witchcraft, and a Foundation of Witchcraft,
then laid, which if it were not seasonably discovered
would probably Blow up, and pull down all the
Churches in the Country. And we have now with
Horror seen the Discovery of such a Witchcraft![xvi]

Parris, like Mather, was a proponent of the belief in the existence of the Devil and his disciples. Consider the following from one of his many sermons as pastor of Salem.

Angel or Spirit....One of you is a Devil.[xvii]
Our Lord Jesus Christ knows how
many Devils there are in his church,
and who they are. There are Devils as
well as Saints in Christ's church. Christ
knows how many of these Devils there
are. Christ knows who these Devils are.

Now that we have established the idea that religion was the primary motivation in a Puritan's life, thus the dominant force in his/her existence, have considered some of the basic tenants of Puritanism, and two of its major proponents, Cotton Mather and Samuel Parris, let us now endeavor to discuss another point, crucial to the answering of the question of why lives were lost during the Salem witchcraft episode. That is, we must discuss the idea of the Puritan Devil. According to the American historian, Shirley Jackson:

Everyone (all Puritans of the 1690s)
believed that there actually was a
devil, a created being whose efforts
were directed toward the working of
evil. It was important to know precisely
how effective the devil could be, and, of
course, how best to fight against him.
The devil was believed to carry on his
war against heaven through the use of
human beings. Every person won to
his service was a blow against heaven
and the strength of the church. It was
commonly believed that the devil worked
in person against mankind, using all his
weapons to urge humanity to his side.[xviii]

Francis Winwar, another historian of the Salem witchcraft episode, offers the following description of what the Puritans fervently believed was the enemy of God, Satan.

No, the Devil was no imaginary evil
to the people of New England. He
was a real, physical being whom
the bewitched described in minute
detail, from his blackened skin to his
cloven hoof and forked tail. For the
Devil had crossed the ocean with the
Puritans in remembered witch trials in
Old England.[xix]

We can conclude that since the Puritans had such an active description of the Devil they certainly believed in his existence and feared that existence.

Another creature that the Puritans believed in, aside from the Devil and his Demons, was a tiny hairy creature, they referred to as the "imp." Consider the following:

Obviously the woman was telling the
truth. Did she not describe the witch's
favorite means of perambulation, and the
witch's imp or familiar which she would
suckle from her own body so that it would
then do her bidding in hurting and
tormenting innocent people?[xx]

Now, one might ask, even though we have established the fact that the Puritans ardently believed and taught the existence of the Devil, demons, and imps, how does this relate to the cause of the deaths of the accused witches? To answer that question we must next consider the symptoms of the girls who were said to be demon possessed and were doing the accusing.

Winwar points out in his writings that when the doctors of Salem were not able to diagnose the cause of the girls' behavior, they were (the afflicted girls) declared to be possessed by the Devil and his Demons. Indeed, their behavior was peculiar, and thought incapable of being the result of a medical, or physical, cause, no matter how rational such an explanation might be. The afflicted girls’ behavior is described by Winwar in the following passage.

The girls performed peculiar antics. They
screamed without visible provocation,
thrust out their tongues, crouched under
beds and tables, suffered from horrible
convulsions and were unaccountably
tortured by unseen beings, who left,
nonetheless, obvious marks upon the
bodies of the afflicted.[xxi]

Such exotic behavior, it was thought, had to come from the Devil. We can recall, that the folks of Salem then began to believe all the girls claimed. When the folks heard the names of the accused, Salem turned from a New England town into a court of death. The ensuing trials were merciless.[xxii] The town was turned up-side-down.

The jails overflowed with prisoners
awaiting the arrival of the new governor
from England for the trials to begin. Salem
prison could hold no more; cartloads of
the accused were sent to neighboring
jails in Ipswich and Boston.[xxiii]

It would not be too much of a stretch of the imagination to compare the Salem witchcraft trials with those of the French Revolution during the Jacobin rule of The Terror, a century later, or even the Red Scare or McCarthyism of the 1950's and 60's in the U.S.

We have now considered the way in which Puritan life was dominated by religion. We have understood that the Puritans of New England fervently belied in the existence of the Devil. We have considered the behavior and symptoms of the afflicted girls of Salem. We have seen how the town of Salem was turned from a New England village into a merciless court. What we must next discuss is the behavior of the accused witches and why they were sentenced to death.

Furthermore, a confession of witchcraft could have saved the lives of many of the executed accused, but they refused to admit to witchcraft, which should say something for the accused. Lets start with Bridget Bishop.

We have learned Bridget Bishop was the first of the accused witches of Salem to stand trial and be sentenced to death.[xxiv] By considering the events of her trial we will understand why so many lost their lives. Why was Bridget Bishop seen as guilty upon being accused by the afflicted girls of witchcraft? The following is one explanation.

Many enemies had the high-handed,
sharp-tongued hostelry keeper made
for herself among the people of Salem.
The women hated her because she
scorned the drabness of their garb and
disregarded the Puritan laws that
fixed the apparel of every sober man
and woman. Her bright paragon bodice,
braided and looped with many colors,
and her cloak of fine cut were the
scandal of the town. The late hours she
kept at her wayside inn entertaining the
sailors at shuffleboard and checkers,
horrified the pure in mind. Furthermore,
for many years she had been under
suspicion of witchcraft because of......
accusations brought against her...
But the good people of her
neighborhood had long memories
which they exercised zealously when
they saw her lands multiply and her
tavern thrive.[xxv]

This explanation alludes to the idea that if one were prosperous, and not a follower of the Puritan laws, he/she was vulnerable to the accusation of witchcraft. The trial of Bridget Bishop, like the subsequent ones, was not a mirror image of our trials of contemporary times. Innocent until proven guilty was not the philosophy of the Puritan courtroom! Consider the following from Bishop's trial.

What do you say of these murders
you are charged with? ...I am innocent.
I know nothing of them......What contract
have you made with the Devil?....I made
no contract. The shrieking drowned out
her words and the judge's as the children
fell into renewed agonies so excruciating
that for some minutes the business could
not proceed. The woman (it was believed)
was working her witchcraft in defiance of
the very court.[xxvi]

The seemingly overwhelming evidence, to the court, against Bishop was presented by Jon Bly Sr. and William Bly. According to the testimony of these men, they found, at her old house, “Deponends in holes. . . belonging to the said Cellar found several puppets made up of Rags and hog’s Bristles with headless pins.”[xxvii] Although the dolls, assumed to be instruments of witchcraft, were considered important evidence against Bishop, they never were brought in as physical evidence to the trial. But, physical evidence, in a courtroom that allowed specter evidence, was not needed to find guilt. Bridget Bishop had no chance of proving her innocence. She was either expected to admit she was guilty or be found guilty. The penalty was, of course, death.

Bridget Bishop was condemned. On the
tenth of June (1692) George Corwin, thesheriff,
would take her to the ledge of
Gallow's Hill, there to hang her by the
neck till she was dead.[xxviii]

As stated earlier, the scriptures, according to Mosaic law, deemed that witches should be punished by death. Bridget Bishop was not the only person to die because of accusations of witchcraft. The case of Rebecca Nurse is a more severe and shocking example of the extent of the Puritan religious fanaticism of 1692. She was a seventy-one-year-old, respected lady at the time the accusations were brought against her. She was considered a saint by many in Salem. Yet, on July 3, 1692, she was excommunicated from the church in Salem and sentenced to death. On July 19, she fell victim to the noose. Tragic! Obviously, the Puritans who took the life of this grandmother were fanatics and blinded by their religious beliefs.[xxix]

The Puritans of Salem, in 1692, were not evil, murderous people. They were victims of the religious fanaticism of the day. As a result of the dominant role that religion played in their lives, their belief in the existence of the Devil, their belief in the biblical teaching that witches were, in fact, real and one must not suffer a witch to live, and the oddity of the afflicted girls' exotic symptoms, the accused witches' lives were taken. Oddly enough, another question arises that questions the Puritan’s logic: Why were only the ones accused of witchcraft, that did not admit to the crime, hanged? Why weren’t the confessed witches hanged? One need not be an extraordinarily sagacious scholar of American history to conclude that the loss of life during 1692, in Salem, was the result of Puritan religious fanaticism.

SECTION 2

What we must next consider in our examination of the Salem witchcraft trials is the cause of the exotic physical and mental behavior that many displayed during this event. It is reasonable for one to consider the possibility that schizophrenia might very well have been responsible for much of the aforementioned exotic behavior. At the time that the afflicted girls were diagnosed as being possessed no one had completed any in depth studies on this disease. In fact, some might even argue that the disease had never been diagnosed anywhere in the New or Old world. Although unknown and undiagnosed, there can be no question that mental illness, especially schizophrenia, existed in and about the time of 1692.

The following section of this paper will discuss what schizophrenia is, define the various types of schizophrenia, consider how the symptoms of schizophrenia correlate with those of various individuals (like the afflicted girls) in Salem in 1692, and draw a conclusion.
Schizophrenia can be defined as:

A form of psychosis characterized by
delusions, hallucinations, apathy or
inappropriate emotions, and withdrawal
from reality.[xxx]

And as for the effects of schizophrenia, “perhaps no psychological disorder is more crippling than schizophrenia.”[xxxi] Schizophrenia is a group of related illnesses that can cause a "loss of self-control resulting in unpredictable and highly bizarre behavior."[xxxii] Now, let us consider the characteristics of the various types of schizophrenia.

The simple type is characterized by
a slow and insiduous reduction of
external attachments and interests
and by apathy and indifference leading
to impoverishment of interpersonal
relations, mental deterioration, and
adjustment at a lower level of functioning.[xxxiii]

The second type of schizophrenia is the hebephrenic type. It is
characterized by disorganized thinking,
shallow and inappropriate effect,
unpredictable giggling, silly and
regressive behavior and mannerisms,
and frequent hypochondriachal
complaints. Delusions and
hallucinations, if present, are transient
and not well organized.[xxxiv]

Dr. Camilla Anderson, a psychiatrist at the University of Utah, defined hallucinations in her book, Beyond Freud, as

sensory perceptions (hearing, seeing,
tasting, feeling, smelling, etc.) which
have no basis in fact. No external stimulus
produces them. They arise from within
the individual himself but are interpreted
by him as having an external origin.[xxxv]

  According to the Schizophrenic Homepage,
“Hallucinations can be heard, seen, or even felt;
most often they take the form of voices heard only by the
afflicted person.”[xxxvi]

Dr. Anderson defines delusions as
false convictions which are not
amenable to reasoning. They, like
dreams, are the person's own products.
He has constructed them by himself,
and without external help.[xxxvii]

The third type of schizophrenia is the catatonic type which
is usually divided into two subtypes.

One is marked by excessive and
sometimes violent motor activity and
excitement. The other subtype, which
is more common, is characterized by
general inhibition of movement, stupor,
mutism, and negativism.....Delusions
and hallucinations are usually present.[xxxviii]

The fourth type of schizophrenia is the paranoid type. It is
characterized primarily by the
presence of delusions of persecution
or grandeur. Hallucinations are often
present. Excessive religiosity is sometimes
seen. The patient's attitude is frequently
hostile and aggressive, and his (her)
behavior tends to be influenced by his
(her) delusions.[xxxix]

The chronic undifferentiated type
is characterized by symptoms
associated with one or more of the
other types mentioned. The symptoms
may vary, with some symptoms most
prominent at one time and others most
prominent at other times.[xl]

It is important that one realize that a person suffering from
one of the aforementioned types of schizophrenia will
not always exhibit the behavior characteristic of the type of the
disease he/she is suffering from.
Sometimes the patient will be rational
and seem completely "normal" until a
particular subject arises.[xli]

It is our belief that schizophrenia was present in Salem in 1692 and that the type most prevalent was the chronic undifferentiated type, which manifests various behaviors from all types.

Let us now consider a case study of a schizophrenic female and draw a correlation between her behavior and behavior in Salem.

Twenty-six-year-old Janet Douglas
(fictional name) was brought to a
mental health center in the United
States. Upon admission she told
the examining doctor she did not
think she needed help. After further
questions she made the odd claim,
with a straight face, that all the people
in her city could hear what she was
thinking. 'It all started five years ago,'
she said, 'when the President of the
United States ordered the FBI to plant
"truth serum" in my drinking water.'
Suddenly, she broke into uncontrollable
giggles, wrinkling up her face, rolling her
head, and saying, almost incomprehensibly:
'But I fool them....the way they are. My eyes
can speak of the beauty. I say love words
and pattern words I've found out until
everybody quits the way I make them..'
she giggled wildly in her cupped hand.
Shortly afterwards, she told the doctor
that often when she 'starts to be perfect'
she heard the voices of her neighbours
in the air....These voices frightened her so
much.....While she described her torments,
however, her giggling faded and she became
inappropriately calm, attaching no emotional
depth to her own words...[xlii]

Certainly this particular schizophrenic was suffering from a combination of the paranoid type of schizophrenia and the chronic undifferentiated type. Let us now see if we can correlate the aforementioned case study and the characteristics of the various schizophrenias with some behavior in Salem.

We must first consider the behavior of the afflicted girls, as depicted by Francis Winwar in his writings on Salem.

The girls performed peculiar antics. They
screamed without visible provocation,
thrust out their tongues, crouched under
beds and tables, suffered from horrible
convulsions and were unaccountably
tortured by unseen beings, who left,
nonetheless, obvious marks upon the
bodies of the afflicted.[xliii]

We can see that the afflicted girls were tormented for no apparent reason, as was the female in the case study. Perhaps the torments were the result of different, or similar, hallucinations. Both the afflicted girls and the lady in the case study behaved peculiarly and inappropriately. In addition, no one can deny that the afflicted girls showed one of the symptoms of the paranoid type of schizophrenia; obsession with religion. We have already discussed in the first section of this paper how religion was the main concern of the way of life in Salem village.

Establishing the idea that hallucinations and delusions were present in Salem is not difficult. We have already noted that the aforementioned are characteristics of schizophrenia. Consider the following narrative from the Salem witchcraft trials:

In the beginning of the Evening,
I went to give Mr. P. a visit. When I
was there, his Kins-woman, Abagail
Williams (about twelve years of age),
had a grevious fit: she was at first
hurried with Violence to and fro in the
room (though Mrs. Ingersol endeavored
to hold her); sometimes making as if
she would fly, stretching up her arms
as high as she could, and crying "Whish,
Whish, Whish!" several times; Presently
after she said there was Goodw N(urse).
and said "Do you not see her? Why there
she stands!" And the said Goodw. N.
offered her The Book, but she was
resolved she would not take it, saying
Often "I wont, I wont, I wont, take it, I do
not know what Book it is: I am sure it is
none of God's Book, it is the Divels Book,
for ought I know." After that, she run to the
Fire, and begun to throw Fire Brands,
about the house; and run against the Back,
as if she would run up the Chimney, and,
as they said, she had attempted to go into
the Fire in other Fits.[xliv]

Obviously Abagail Williams was deluded into believing, perhaps, that she was a bird at one point and perhaps a rodent (near the end of the passage where she tries to run up the chimney) at another point. She also showed signs of being a catatonic schizophrenic because of her violent behavior. Clearly, she had a hallucination of Rebecca Nurse and the Devil's Book. Anyone who has studied the Salem witchcraft episode in any detail is aware that such hallucinations and delusions manifested throughout the episode in 1692. Let us consider another hallucination.

The Deposition of Ann. putnam the wife
of Thomas putnam agged about thirty
years who testifieth and saith......I being
wearied out in helping to tend my poor
afflected Child and Maid: about the
middle of the affternoon I layd me down
to take a little Rest: and Immediately I
was allmost prest and Choaked to death:
that had it not been for the mircy of a gratious
God and the help of those that ware with
me: I could not have lived many moments:
and presently I saw the Apperishtion of
Martha Cory who did torter me so as I
cannot Express Redy to tare me all to
peaces: and yn departed from me alitle
while: but before I could recover strenth
or well take breath the Apperishtion of
Martha Cory fell upon me again with
dreadful tortors and hellish temtations
to goe along with hir and she also
brought to me a little Red book in hir
hand and a black pen urging me
vehemently to writ in hir book: and
severall times that day she did most
greviously tortor me allmost redy to
kill me....[xlv]

Ann Putman, Jr., age 12 at the time of the beginning of the trial, became one of the most active of the accusers. She, along with her sister, Abigail, presented numerous claims of witchcraft by means of specter evidence and bodily afflictions. Unlike the rest of the afflicted children, Ann, in 1706, offered a public apology for her part in the witchcraft trials. Ann stated, “I desire to be humble before God. It was a great delusion of Satan that deceived me in that said time. I did not do it out of anger, malice, or ill-will.”[xlvi] Ann admitted that she was under a delusion, in her own mind, of the Devil.

One particular characteristic of schizophrenia Ann showed was the fact that she never married or had children. She devoted the rest of her life to raising her siblings, and died at the age of 37.[xlvii] Nancy C. Anderson, M.D, Ph.D. at the University of Iowa, discussed this trend in schizophrenics. Anderson notes that schizophrenia “persists as an illness despite the fact that the majority of its victims do not marry or procreate.”[xlviii] Perhaps, instead of being an accuser, Ann Putman was as much as a victim as the slain accused witches. Perhaps Ann suffered from a disease, schizophrenia, which was unknown of in her time.

No one can debate the fact that hallucinations were present in Salem. In addition, if you will recall from the descriptions of the various types of schizophrenia, we have seen many of the characteristics of the various schizophrenias in the behavior of the townsfolk of Salem.

In order to further establish the hypothesis that schizophrenia may very well have been present in Salem in 1692, we have consulted two doctors to learn of professional opinions on this matter. The already mentioned Dr. Anderson asserts in her writing that a person's belief that he or she is being controlled by an outside force, like God or some other supernatural power (the Devil or demons) is a characteristic of schizophrenia.[xlix] One need not be an extraordinarily sagacious historian to realize that the aforementioned belief permeated the townsfolk of Salem.

In conclusion, the events of the witchcraft hysteria in Salem, MA, in 1692, presented two key factors: (1) Religious Fanaticism and its capabilities and (2) Schizophrenia and the results of ignorance to psychological diseases. Were the Puritans evil and horrible people who wanted to hang men and women in the name of witchcraft? No, they just wanted to serve the Lord in their own way, according to their Puritan doctrine. The good people of Salem simply fell victim to the powers of religious fanaticism and a misunderstanding of the afflicted girls’ symptoms. Leaders, such as Cotton Mather and Reverend Parris, hurried to defeat the Devil and his witches, only to incorporate some of the same tactics that the alleged witches used in tying to convince citizens of Salem to join their ranks. The court used torture and the fear of death to gain confessions. With the help and advise of certain Puritan leaders, especially Increase Mather, the Puritans came to realize that “although witchcraft was still a real danger, the crime of spilling innocent blood came to be more frightening than the crime of suffering a witch to live.”[l]

This paper is just the beginning of a new way to look at the Salem Witchcraft trials, and perhaps history in general. Looking back over the past few decades in American History, the theme of religious fanaticism and/or mental illness has produced similar results, as it did in Salem in 1692. Consider, briefly, such incidents as the Waco, TX, fiasco, the men from the “Heaven’s Gate” mass suicide, or even Charles Manson’s tirade. In all these instances, men and women lost their lives in the name of religious fanaticism, and, perhaps, each of the leaders suffered from a mental illness, such as schizophrenia. The power of religious fanaticism and mental illness cannot be denied, nor overlooked. Perhaps the topic of Salem witchcraft has been exhausted, however, it will present the same burning questions to historians and students for many years to come.

More research into the psychological health of the afflicted and the Puritan leaders needs to be conducted before the factors of religious fanaticism and mental illness (schizophrenia) can be considered a strong reason for the cause and actions of the witch hunt in 1692. All we are looking for is the possibility that these two factors were present, and that they could have had an inverse effect upon the trials, and to begin the understanding, from a psychological view, of the Puritans and their actions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anderson, Camilla Dr. Beyond Freud: A Creative Approach To Mental Health. New York. Harper And Brothers, 1957. Bercovitch, Sacvan. Aspects Of Puritan Religious Thought. New York. AMS Press, INC, 1808. Boyer, Paul & Nissenbaum, Stephen. Salem Possessed. London. Harvard University Press, 1974. Cooper, James & Minkema, Kenneth. The Sermon Notebook Of Samuel Parris: 1689-1694. Boston. University Press Of Virginia, 1993. Jackson, Shirley. The Witchcraft Of Salem Village. New York. Random House, 1956. Mulligan, Dr. Bill, Murray State University, History 300, Fall 1998. Salem Trials Homepage. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_BMAT.HTM. Schneider, Herbert. The Puritan Mind. Michigan. The University Of Michigan Press, 1958. Tsuang, Ming. Schizophrenia: The Facts. Oxford. Oxford University Press, 1982. Winwar, Frances. Puritan City: The Story Of Salem. New York. Robert M. McBride & Company, 1938. Witchcraft in Salem Village Homepage http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/NurseDoc/NurLaw1. html

End Notes

[i]Images From The Salem Witchcraft Trials. http//www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_BNUR.HTM
[ii]Herbert Schneider, The Puritan Mind (Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 1958), 23.
[iii]Ibid., 10.
[iv]Ibid., 17.
[v]Sacvan Bercovitch, Aspects of Puritan Religious Thought (New York: AMS Press, INC., 1808), a (preface).
[vi]Levin, David, ed., What Happened In Salem? (U.S.: Twayne Publishers, 1952), 9.
[vii]Ibid., 235.
[viii]Ibid., 80.
[ix]Levin, David, ed.. What Happened In Salem? , 7.
[x]Boyer, Paul & Nissenbaum, Stephen, Salem Possessed (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973), 158.
[xi]Sacvan Bercovitch. Aspects Of Puritan Religious Thought, 275.
[xii]"Images From The Salem Witchcraft Trials," http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/ASA_PAR.HTM.
[xiii]Ibid.
[xiv]Ibid.
[xv]Mappen, Marc, ed. Witches and Historians, Interpretations of Salem, (Huntington: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Co., Inc, 1980), 20-21.
[xvi]Ibid.
[xvii]James Cooper & Kenneth Minkema, The Sermon Notebook Of Samuel Parris: 1689-1694 (Boston: University Press of Virginia, 1993), 195.
[xviii]Shirley Jackson, The Witchcraft Of Salem Village (New York: Random House, 1956), 4.
[xix]Frances Winwar, Puritan City: The Story Of Salem (New York: Robert M. McBride & Company, 1938), 96.
[xx]Ibid., 101.
[xxi]Ibid., 96.
[xxii]Boyer, Paul & Nissenbaum, Stephen, Salem Possessed, 69.
[xxiii]Francis Winwar. Puritan City: The Story Of Salem, 100.
[xxiv]Dr. Bill Mulligan, HIS 300, Murray State University, Fall, 1998.
[xxv]Winwar, Puritan City, 106.
[xxvi]Ibid., 107.
[xxvii]Levin, David, ed. What Happened in Salem?, 57.
[xxviii]Ibid., 111.
[xxix]Images From The Salem Witchcraft Trials, http//www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_BNUR.HTM
[xxx]Coon, Dennis, Essentials Of Psychology: Exploration and Application, 6^th edition (St. Paul/Minneapolis: West Publishing Co., 1994), 513
[xxxi]Hollandsworth Jr., James G., The Physiology of Psychological Disorders: Schizophrenia, Depression, Anxiety, and Substance Abuse (New York: Plenum Press, 1990), 67.
[xxxii]Stolov, Walter Dr. & Clowers, Michael Dr., Handbook Of Severe Disability (Washington: U.S. Department of Education & Rehabilitation Services Administration, 1981), 254
[xxxiii]Ibid.
[xxxiv]Ibid.
[xxxv]Anderson, Camilla Dr., Beyond Freud: A Creative Approach To Mental Health, (New York: Harper And Brothers, 1957), p. 209.
[xxxvi]“An Introduction to Schizophrenia” from Schizophrenic Homepage. Http://www.schizophrenic.com/family/scizintro.html
[xxxvii]Anderson, Camilla Dr., Beyond Freud, 210.
[xxxviii]Stolov, Walters Dr. and Clowers, Michael Dr., Handbook Of Severe Disability, 253.
[xxxix]Ibid.
[xl]Ibid.
[xli]Ibid.
[xlii]Tsuang, Ming, Schizophrenia: The Facts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), 15,16.
[xliii]Winwar, Francis, Puritan City, 96.
[xliv]Http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/NurseDoc/NurLaw1.html Rebecca Nurse Collection: Deodat Lawson's Narrative
[xlv]Http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/NurseDoc/NurDep1.html Rebecca Nurse Collection: Deposition: Ann Putnam, Sr. Vs. Martha Cory and Rebecca Nurse
[xlvi]“Biography of Ann Putman, Jr.,” Http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/ASA_PUT.HTM
[xlvii]Ibid.
[xlviii]“Understanding the Causes of Schizophrenia” from The New England Journal of Medicine. http://www.nejm.org/content/1999/0340/0008/0645.asp
[xlix]Anderson, Camilla Dr., Beyond Freud, 214.

From:  The Early America Review (Fall 2000)