CROW | Creatures of Sorrow: Lay experiences of melancholy in early modern Scandinavia

Summary
CROW explores lay experiences of being mentally unwell in 16th- and 17th century Scandinavia. It asks how social status, gender and age affected experiences of mental states before the modern era. In doing so, it deepens our understanding of mental suffering historically and creates an inclusive and complex history of the phenomenon. The project uses new sources and new digital methods that combined can reach a wide variety of experiences. The objectives of CROW are: 1. Provide an examination of experiences of being mentally unwell in the early modern period that takes into account embodied experiences and emotions as well as early modern religious and medical frameworks; 2. Advance the scope for examining lay people’s experiences through the use of digital methods; 3. Provide a historical account of experiences of mental suffering that informs present-day debate about mental health.

CROW uses as a point of departure the understanding that experiences are created through embodied sensations in cultural contexts, and thus socially bound and historically significant, to argue that they can be researched through patterns in individual statements regarding embodiment, in tandem with reconstruction of cultural frameworks. The project examines ecclesiastical court records from the Scandinavian realms to find patterns in verbatim text concerning embodied sensations. These patterns are examined in relation to descriptions of melancholy in religious and medical vernacular texts aimed at a lay audience. Through the use of software in several steps, the examination moves from the concept of melancholy, which is key to understanding mental suffering in the early modern, learned debate, to the descriptions of embodiment, which means that experiences of mental suffering can be found even when the concept of melancholy is absent. In addition to advancing understanding of early modern mental suffering, this approach will contribute theoretically to the history of experience.
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101153691
Start date: 01-10-2024
End date: 30-09-2026
Total budget - Public funding: - 230 774,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

CROW explores lay experiences of being mentally unwell in 16th- and 17th century Scandinavia. It asks how social status, gender and age affected experiences of mental states before the modern era. In doing so, it deepens our understanding of mental suffering historically and creates an inclusive and complex history of the phenomenon. The project uses new sources and new digital methods that combined can reach a wide variety of experiences. The objectives of CROW are: 1. Provide an examination of experiences of being mentally unwell in the early modern period that takes into account embodied experiences and emotions as well as early modern religious and medical frameworks; 2. Advance the scope for examining lay people’s experiences through the use of digital methods; 3. Provide a historical account of experiences of mental suffering that informs present-day debate about mental health.

CROW uses as a point of departure the understanding that experiences are created through embodied sensations in cultural contexts, and thus socially bound and historically significant, to argue that they can be researched through patterns in individual statements regarding embodiment, in tandem with reconstruction of cultural frameworks. The project examines ecclesiastical court records from the Scandinavian realms to find patterns in verbatim text concerning embodied sensations. These patterns are examined in relation to descriptions of melancholy in religious and medical vernacular texts aimed at a lay audience. Through the use of software in several steps, the examination moves from the concept of melancholy, which is key to understanding mental suffering in the early modern, learned debate, to the descriptions of embodiment, which means that experiences of mental suffering can be found even when the concept of melancholy is absent. In addition to advancing understanding of early modern mental suffering, this approach will contribute theoretically to the history of experience.

Status

SIGNED

Call topic

HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01-01

Update Date

12-03-2024
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Horizon Europe
HORIZON.1 Excellent Science
HORIZON.1.2 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
HORIZON.1.2.0 Cross-cutting call topics
HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01
HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01-01 MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023