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Posidonius and the Pneumatists: The Aetiology of Emotions and Diseases

  • Teun Tieleman
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Medical Understandings of Emotions in Antiquity
This chapter is in the book Medical Understandings of Emotions in Antiquity

Abstract

Evidence from Galen and other sources permits us to explain the origins of the medical school of the Pneumatists against a Stoic, and in particular Posidonian, backdrop. Galen’s report at On Cohesive Causes that the school’s founder, Athenaeus of Attalia, studied with Posidonius, is reliable. Athenaeus found in Posidonius already a well-developed interest in medical issues. There is a clear connection between Athenaeus and Posidonius where the aetiology of disease is concerned. Here, as elsewhere, the information taken from Galen is indispensable as it throws light on Posidonius’ notion of predisposing cause in his analysis of the soul’s affections, or emotions. Evidence from Plutarch (Life of Marius 45.3-7) reflects Posidonius’ interest in the soul’s interaction with the body. Posidonius developed his analysis following Chrysippus who had already drawn an extensive analogy between mental and bodily states and presented philosophy as the medicine of the soul. Here Posidonius followed him to a greater extent than has so far been assumed. But in fact, his concern with medical matters reflects a more general feature of the work of this wide-ranging and scientifically minded Stoic. This makes him both a witness to and (in the case of Pneumatism) contributor to Graeco-Roman medicine.

Abstract

Evidence from Galen and other sources permits us to explain the origins of the medical school of the Pneumatists against a Stoic, and in particular Posidonian, backdrop. Galen’s report at On Cohesive Causes that the school’s founder, Athenaeus of Attalia, studied with Posidonius, is reliable. Athenaeus found in Posidonius already a well-developed interest in medical issues. There is a clear connection between Athenaeus and Posidonius where the aetiology of disease is concerned. Here, as elsewhere, the information taken from Galen is indispensable as it throws light on Posidonius’ notion of predisposing cause in his analysis of the soul’s affections, or emotions. Evidence from Plutarch (Life of Marius 45.3-7) reflects Posidonius’ interest in the soul’s interaction with the body. Posidonius developed his analysis following Chrysippus who had already drawn an extensive analogy between mental and bodily states and presented philosophy as the medicine of the soul. Here Posidonius followed him to a greater extent than has so far been assumed. But in fact, his concern with medical matters reflects a more general feature of the work of this wide-ranging and scientifically minded Stoic. This makes him both a witness to and (in the case of Pneumatism) contributor to Graeco-Roman medicine.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface VII
  3. Contents IX
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Emotions Across Medicine and Philosophy
  6. What is a Pathos? Where Medicine Meets Philosophy 17
  7. Drugs and Psychotropic Words in Gorgias’ Encomium of Helen 43
  8. Wonder and Perplexity across Medicine and Philosophy in Classical Greece 59
  9. Part II: Emotions in the Medical Room
  10. The Doctor’s Dilemma: Addressing Irrational Fears 117
  11. Shame and Concealment in the Hippocratic Corpus 123
  12. The Body to be Hidden: Shame and Ancient Medicine 145
  13. Reading and Misreading Medical Emotions: Some Cases of Female Patients in the Hippocratic Epidemics 173
  14. Part III: Medico-philosophical Treatments of Emotion
  15. Posidonius and the Pneumatists: The Aetiology of Emotions and Diseases 201
  16. Galen on Non-Rational Motivation and the Freedom from Emotions: A Reading of Affections of the Soul 229
  17. Disorders of the Soul: Emotions and Clinical Conditions in Galen 247
  18. The Atlas Patient: Galen on Melancholia and Psychosis 271
  19. List of Contributors 287
  20. Index Rerum et Nominum 289
  21. Index Auctorum Antiquorum et Locorum 295
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110771930-009

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface VII
  3. Contents IX
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Emotions Across Medicine and Philosophy
  6. What is a Pathos? Where Medicine Meets Philosophy 17
  7. Drugs and Psychotropic Words in Gorgias’ Encomium of Helen 43
  8. Wonder and Perplexity across Medicine and Philosophy in Classical Greece 59
  9. Part II: Emotions in the Medical Room
  10. The Doctor’s Dilemma: Addressing Irrational Fears 117
  11. Shame and Concealment in the Hippocratic Corpus 123
  12. The Body to be Hidden: Shame and Ancient Medicine 145
  13. Reading and Misreading Medical Emotions: Some Cases of Female Patients in the Hippocratic Epidemics 173
  14. Part III: Medico-philosophical Treatments of Emotion
  15. Posidonius and the Pneumatists: The Aetiology of Emotions and Diseases 201
  16. Galen on Non-Rational Motivation and the Freedom from Emotions: A Reading of Affections of the Soul 229
  17. Disorders of the Soul: Emotions and Clinical Conditions in Galen 247
  18. The Atlas Patient: Galen on Melancholia and Psychosis 271
  19. List of Contributors 287
  20. Index Rerum et Nominum 289
  21. Index Auctorum Antiquorum et Locorum 295
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