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Halloween Character Case Files
Halloween Character Case File 1: Witches
Witches got a mostly bad rap as sinister types who cast spells in the Middle Ages, says Stanley Krippner, PhD, professor of psychology at the Saybrook Graduate School in San Francisco. And it's typically undeserved, he insists. They may be the most psychologically healthy of all the creepy Halloween characters. "In the Middle Ages, some of the witches were probably emotionally disturbed," he tells WebMD. "But in my opinion, most of them were not. They were very good herbalists and midwives. Some of them were surgeons.
"Remember, this was an era where women didn't have much power," Krippner says of the witches' heyday in the Middle Ages. "This was one way they could get some respect."
Some witches, he suspects, were better doctors than the men doing the healing back in those days. But as the witches got more powerful, buying up land wanted by the men, he says the anti-witch crusades occurred, including the witch hunts of the 14th century.
Not all the witches back in the Middle Ages were on that level, of course, Krippner says. "As with any profession, there probably were a few kooks."
Likewise, Krippner says, modern-day witches, by and large, are "a very positive, respectful, peaceful religious group."
Witches got a mostly bad rap as sinister types who cast spells in the Middle Ages, says Stanley Krippner, PhD, professor of psychology at the Saybrook Graduate School in San Francisco. And it's typically undeserved, he insists. They may be the most psychologically healthy of all the creepy Halloween characters. "In the Middle Ages, some of the witches were probably emotionally disturbed," he tells WebMD. "But in my opinion, most of them were not. They were very good herbalists and midwives. Some of them were surgeons.
"Remember, this was an era where women didn't have much power," Krippner says of the witches' heyday in the Middle Ages. "This was one way they could get some respect."
Some witches, he suspects, were better doctors than the men doing the healing back in those days. But as the witches got more powerful, buying up land wanted by the men, he says the anti-witch crusades occurred, including the witch hunts of the 14th century.
Not all the witches back in the Middle Ages were on that level, of course, Krippner says. "As with any profession, there probably were a few kooks."
Likewise, Krippner says, modern-day witches, by and large, are "a very positive, respectful, peaceful religious group."
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SOURCES: Daniel Lapin, PhD, clinical psychologist, San Francisco. James D. Adams, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Barbara Almond, MD, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis, San Francisco. Stanley Krippner, PhD, professor of psychology, Saybrook Graduate School, San Francisco; author, The Vampire, Dracula, and Incest.
Reviewed on October 25, 2007 by Louise Chang, MD.
© 2007 WebMD, Inc. All rights reserved.
