Madness through the eyes of historians

A Moscow holy fool, a medieval French prostitute, a possessed German nun, and Irish hill-dwellers who steal other people's wives are just some of the characters in this book. Did they suffer from mental illness? How and why did medieval society accept or reject the insane? Can a description created by a historian or anthropologist based on documents or traditions be useful to today's doctor? The published works are presented from a clinical point of view and are addressed to psychiatrists and psychologists.