Artes Liberales Emotional Contagion

This book addresses a universal problem: the transmission of psycho-physiological reactions from one person to another, and illuminates the twofold enigma, that of the trajectory of the term compassio, and that of explaining the phenomenon it denoted. When someone yawns or weeps, it often causes others to do the same. In the same way, shuddering, hunger, and sexual desire are all transmissible from one person to another. This book addresses how emotions can be contagious, spreading rapidly among people and resulting in physical effects. Medieval Latin had a specific name for this contagion: compassio (‘compassion’). Etymologically, compassion means experiencing together the same ‘passion’, implying an involuntary reaction of the soul or the body imitating the reactions of others. This compassion-like mechanism intrigued medieval scholars. Ideas about it were examined in the fourteenth century by a series of savants commentating on Aristotle’s Problems, and their notions held a particular place in scientific discourse. To this day, emotional contagion remains a topic of scientific enquiry and raises a number of philosophical, scientific, and anthropological questions. Emotional contagion is mysterious, and so it was in the Middle Ages. How could a single passion be both active and interactive, and what role could be assigned to the outside world in these emotional movements? This book sheds light on how medieval scholars conceived of the soul–body relationship and human interrelations and illuminates the twofold enigma: that of the trajectory of the term compassio, and that of explaining the phenomenon it denoted. Yawning makes one yawn, crying makes one cry. In the same way, a shiver, appetite, sexual desire and confidence are transmitted from one person to another. These examples capture the contagion-like dimension of emotion, spreading rapidly among people with tangible behavioural manifestations. Emotional contagion still challenges scientific explanation, and philosophical, scientific and anthropological topics converge around this issue. In Medieval Latin, there is a specific name for this contagion: compassio (‘compassion’). Etymologically, ‘compassion’ means the co-experience of a ‘passion’, involving an involuntary reaction of the soul or the body imitating the reactions of others. The book investigates how these topics were treated in medieval learned texts, and illuminates the twofold enigma, that of the trajectory of the term compassio, and that of explaining the phenomenon it denoted.

Pages: 320, Hardcover, Manchester University Press