Hadewijch op de Sofa: Een psychodiagnostische tekstanalyse van Hadewijchs Visioenen

The Visions, by the thirteenth century mystical writer Hadewijch, have been subject to many studies and opinions. Hadewijch has, by certain older scholars, been described as a hysteric - almost mentally ill - woman who lost herself in her religious visions and thus lost contact with reality. Though many scholars conveyed their praise for Hadewijch’s beautiful use of language in more recent years - a use of language that shows Hadewijch had knowledge of the contemporary literary climate including mystic themes and conventions - these descriptions, along with some interesting parallels between the structure of the Visions and psychotic experiences, have sparked an interest in a new way of analyzing the texts. In this thesis, the Visions will be analyzed from a new perspective. With a psycho-diagnostic approach on the Visions, Hadewijch’s literary texts will be compared to a modern-day psychotic experience after making a “list of characteristics” based on literature about psychosis....Show moreThe Visions, by the thirteenth century mystical writer Hadewijch, have been subject to many studies and opinions. Hadewijch has, by certain older scholars, been described as a hysteric - almost mentally ill - woman who lost herself in her religious visions and thus lost contact with reality. Though many scholars conveyed their praise for Hadewijch’s beautiful use of language in more recent years - a use of language that shows Hadewijch had knowledge of the contemporary literary climate including mystic themes and conventions - these descriptions, along with some interesting parallels between the structure of the Visions and psychotic experiences, have sparked an interest in a new way of analyzing the texts. In this thesis, the Visions will be analyzed from a new perspective. With a psycho-diagnostic approach on the Visions, Hadewijch’s literary texts will be compared to a modern-day psychotic experience after making a “list of characteristics” based on literature about psychosis. When asking how the psycho-diagnostic approach can add to the analysis of the Visions, it is found that the comparison between the Visions and the “list of characteristics” reveals that the Visions show systematic differences and similarities with the psychotic experience, which may be further prove for the theory that Hadewijchs Visions were written based on their own characteristics. This also may be further prove for the theory that Hadewijch had a deep knowledge of the literary climate in her time and that her visionary reports follow the guidelines of that literary climate.Show less

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Hadewijch op de Sofa: Een psychodiagnostische tekstanalyse van Hadewijchs Visioenen