Diverse minds in early medieval England

Abstract

In this thesis, descriptions of minds in primary sources are explored in order to come to a better understanding of the range of concepts of minds and their functioning existed in the early medieval period (600-1100) in England. This research project responds critically to scholarship on early medieval minds that centralises a standard or ideal model of the mind, influenced by modern medical concepts and philosophical traditions, but that tends to exclude descriptions of minds in the primary sources that conflict with this idea of the mind. The diversity of concepts in texts from early medieval England suggests that conventional models of the early medieval mind should be re-examined, nuanced and enlarged. The primary literature encompasses a wide range of descriptions of minds that are not easily categorised in terms of health or normality, but which instead depict minds as diverse, changing and contingent on physical and emotional state, stage in life, and so on. Furthermore, early medieval concepts of mind appear to include minds and cognitive processes that extend or travel outside the human body, that are non-human in origin, and that continue to exist after death. Recognising such descriptions as part of early medieval ideas about minds transforms our comprehension of historical perspectives on minds and mental activity, with further implications for a wide range of fields of study, such as research into relics or objects. By engaging both with modern models and paradigms, as well as bringing together a wide range of primary material, this thesis opens a discussion about early medieval minds that goes beyond normality and dysfunction to acknowledge variety, diversity and difference.

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