Emotions in the Early Modern Medical Tradition

Abstract

One of the problems facing historians of emotion is the question of, modernity,. In this specific context this means the well-rehearsed historiographical belief that sometime in the late seventeenth century new ways of thinking and feeling emerged, and emotions in their modern, mental realms were invented.² Elsewhere I have argued against historical meta-narratives of emotional change which – primarily drawing on the work of Norbert Elias and the, civilizing process, − characterize the emergence of, modern, emotional behaviour as a history of affective restraint versus indulgence.³ The evidence for this shift is derived from perceived – yet largely unexplored – transformations in medical theory and practice. Historians are accustomed to viewing the post-Restoration period as representing a radical break in medico-scientific ideas about the human body and its capabilities. Despite criticism over the shadows thrown by the Enlightenment, the post-Newtonian age is associated with a revolution in human thought, behaviour and action. As Roy Porter put it, the Enlightenment, secured the triumph of a radical new rendering of the very constitution of Nature, as Aristotelian metaphysics were overthrown by models of nature, viewed as matter in motion, governed by laws capable of mathematical expression,.⁴ The creation of this mathematical universe underlined the processes by which, human nature, became discoverable, measurable and quantifiable in ways hitherto unknown.⁵