ABSTRACT
In Kiev Rus’ (ninth to tenth centuries AD), mental patients were under the patronage of the church authorities and could easily find asylum in the monasteries. Even at that time, the written sources (chronicles) mention two principal groups of mental patients: first, the so-called ‘devilish’ who were disturbed and agitated; second, the ‘odd and feeble-minded’. These distinctions are not dissimilar to ancient Roman classifications of people into either furiosi or dementes. On the whole, people practising witchcraft and klikushestvo (translated as: ‘drawing attention to oneself by means of demonstrative behaviour’) were condemned and sometimes even prosecuted. However, in the majority of cases such behaviours were understood as symptoms of disease. Another group comprised ‘God’s fools’ or ‘holy fools’. These were wandering beggars, probably with some mental deficit and residual symptoms of schizophrenia and paranoia; they were allowed to make heretical statements and criticize the authorities.
