The doctor’s dilemma: Addressing irrational fears

It is first argued, on the basis both of pragmatic case histories in Epidemics and of theoretical observations in Aphorisms, that Hippocratic physicians found a correlation between mental and physical conditions. It is seen that, among the former, fear is prominent (as in the list “fear, shame, grief, delight, anger and so on” of On Humours 9) and that, among irrational fears, dream terrors or nightmares are most often at issue (as in On Regimen 4, where the nature of sleep itself is explored). After a brief treatment of relevant passages in other works, attention is paid to irrational fears in On the Sacred Disease and On Diseases of Girls with particular regard to the supposed aetiology of, and recommended therapy for, such problems and associated precipitating conditions. In this, attitudes to female physiology and psychology are explored. In conclusion it is contended that there was significant mutual interaction between medical and non-medical writers and further suggested that the author of On Diseases of Girls (responsible also for other parts of the Corpus, including the treatise On Glands) may have influenced the thought of Aristotle on the emotions. The famous presentation of pity and fear in Poetics is viewed as paradigmatic.