dear john sherry
there is quite a lot of stuff from theoretical people on this area: for
example, Michel Foucault *The History of Sexuality volume One* and the
interview "The Confession of the Flesh" in his *Power/Knowledge*
collection; also, Jeremy Tambling *Confession: Sexuality, Sin, the
Subject* and Hepworth & Turner *Confession* [sorry for these rather
vague references, but i don't have any of these things in front of me
right now]. There is also a lot of work on "confession" in medieval
literature, and its implications on subjectivity, sometimes linked to
proto-psychoanalysis - for example, Leigh Gilmore's *Autobiographics*
[which is excellent]
I also have a vague memory that Thomas Szasz has written a book on
psychiatry and inquisition - though i have never read it.
My own feelings are that it is an interesting area, but deeply
problematic: there is a danger of privileging one area [medieval conf.,
psychiatry] over the other, and therefore seeing things either as
"origins" or "endpoints" - both of which rather mask the specific and
contigent questions of power and subjectivity. Foucault is empirically
thin, but conceptually the most important - although even he goes for a
kind of teleological progress ...
with apologies to Alistair, i have to say that hte conference at York on
confession was not really the forum to address these kinds of questions.
There were some empirically rich papers, and a solid discussion of
gender and confession from Jacqueline Murray [in some ways similar to her
paper published in *Women, the Godly and the Book*], and quite a lot of
ridiculous sectarian infighting [in my opinion :)] ... the theme of
"social control" raised its head in a desultory fashion every once in a
while, but didn't seem to have progressed conceptually past the solid
but somewhat basic analysis of Thomas Tentler [in "Sin and Confession
..."]; and in any case, was largely raised in order to be dismissed.
But - ask Jim Ginther or Torfi [sorry, i've forgotten your surname!] for
alternative opinions!
so - hope some of that was helpful. if you need better references, i
will provide them next week!
cheers
john arnold
centre for medieval studies, york, england
>
> | > From: Sherry <[log in to unmask]>
> | > Date: Tue, 28 May 1996 08:12:30 -0400
> | > Subject: New member, John Sherry
> | > To: All list members <[log in to unmask]>
> | >
> | >
> | > I'm a mental health worker doing research on medieval confession - the
> | > tie-in with mental health is that I'm interested in confession as an
> | > antecedent of modern psychotherapy. I'm interested in the development of
> | > confessional practice in the periods preceding and following Lateran IV,
> | > particularly in the light of that Council's emphasis on "private"
> | > confession. I'm pursuing the research from the standpoint of philosophical
> | > and literary history, so I also have a wider interest in issues connected
> | > with medieval culture - particularly Thomistic psychology and Middle
> | > English literature.
> |
> | You'd have done well to come to the conference here at York on the very subject. Alastair Minnis,
> | on this network, is one of the editors of the proceedings.
>
> If you are interested in the psychological aspect of confession, then
> you should read the works on confession by Robert Grosseteste, who
> integreted traditional augustinian psychology with some of the trendy
> arabic psychology emerging in the thirteenth century.
>
> The two best texts to examine are:
>
> Deus est, ed. S Wenzel in Franciscan Studies 30 (1970) 218-293;
>
> Perambulavit Iudas (Speculum confessionis) ed. J Goering and FAC
> Mantello in Revue Benedictine 96 (1986) 125-168
>
> Both have excellent introductory discussions. The second one is most
> intriguing for its use of a city motif to describe sensory
> experience, as well as the highly personal account of sin and
> confession.
>
> Cheers
> Jim
>
> =========================================================
> James R. Ginther
> Dept. of Theology and Religious Studies
> University of Leeds
> Leeds LS2 9JT
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> E-mail: Phone: +44.113.233.6749
> [log in to unmask] Fax: +44.113.233.3654
> -=*=-
> http://www.leeds.ac.uk/trs/trs.html
> =========================================================
>
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