Glass delusion
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Glass delusion is an external manifestation of a
psychiatric disorder A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...
recorded in Europe mainly in the late
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
and early modern period (15th to 17th centuries). People feared that they were made of
glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...
"and therefore likely to shatter into pieces".


Delusion

In the 16th and 17th centuries of Europe,
glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...
became a valuable commodity. It was regarded as a magical, alchemical object. Associated with fragility and luxury, glass influenced the way noblemen of early Europe perceived their esteemed positions in society. This fixation on a novel material contributed to the manifestation of the delusion.
Edward Shorter Edward Shorter (1767-1836) was an English engineer and inventor of several useful inventions including an early screw propeller. Early life Edward was born in London on 3 December 1767 in the parish of St Sepulchre, Newgate to Robert and Ann ...
, a historian of psychiatry from the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
, attributes the novelty of glass material in 17th century Europe to the rise of the delusion, stating that "throughout history, the inventive unconscious mind has pegged its delusions on to new materials and the technological advances of the age." Concentration of the glass delusion among the wealthy and educated classes allowed modern scholars to associate it with a wider and better described disorder of melancholy.Speak, "El licenciado...", p.850


Contemporary accounts

Robert Burton Robert Burton (8 February 1577 – 25 January 1640) was an English author and fellow of Oxford University, who wrote the encyclopedic tome ''The Anatomy of Melancholy''. Born in 1577 to a comfortably well-off family of the landed gentry, Burt ...
's ''
The Anatomy of Melancholy ''The Anatomy of Melancholy'' (full title: ''The Anatomy of Melancholy, What it is: With all the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Several Cures of it. In Three Maine Partitions with their several Sections, Members, and Subsections. Ph ...
'' (1621) touches on the subject in the commentary as one of many related manifestations of the same anxiety:
Fear of devils,
death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
, that they shall be so sick, of some such or such disease, ready to tremble at every object, they shall die themselves forthwith, or that some of their dear friends or near allies are certainly dead; imminent danger, loss, disgrace still torment others; that they are all glass, and therefore will suffer no man to come near them; that they are all
cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
, as light as feathers; others as heavy as
lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
; some are afraid their heads will fall off their shoulders, that they have frogs in their bellies, Etc.
Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...
based one of his short '' Exemplary Novels'', ''The Glass Graduate'' ( es,
El licenciado Vidriera "El licenciado Vidriera" ("The Lawyer of Glass") is a short story written by Miguel de Cervantes and included in his ''Novelas ejemplares'', first published in 1613. Plot summary Tomás Rodaja, a young boy, is found by strangers, apparently ab ...
, 1613), on the delusion of the title subject, an aspiring young lawyer. The protagonist of the story falls into a grave depression after being bedridden for six months subsequent to being poisoned with a purportedly
aphrodisiac An aphrodisiac is a substance that increases sexual desire, sexual attraction, sexual pleasure, or sexual behavior. Substances range from a variety of plants, spices, foods, and synthetic chemicals. Natural aphrodisiacs like cannabis or cocain ...
potion. He claims that, being of glass, his perceptions are clearer than those of men of flesh and demonstrates by offering witty comments. After two years of illness, Rodaja is cured by a monk; no details of the cure are provided except that the monk is allegedly a miracle-maker. The Dutch poet
Constantijn Huygens Sir Constantijn Huygens, Lord of Zuilichem ( , , ; 4 September 159628 March 1687), was a Dutch Golden Age poet and composer. He was also secretary to two Princes of Orange: Frederick Henry and William II, and the father of the scientist C ...
wrote a ''Costly Folly'' (1622) centered on a subject who "fears everything that moves in his vicinity... the chair will be the death for him; he trembles at the bed, fearful that one will break his bum, the other smash his head". His Dutch contemporary Caspar Barlaeus experienced the glass delusion. French philosopher
René Descartes René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathem ...
wrote ''Meditations on First Philosophy'' (1641), using the glass
delusion A delusion is a false fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, hallucination, or some o ...
as an example of an
insane Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to ...
person whose perceived knowledge of the world differs from the majority. In the ''
Essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...
'' (Book II, Chapter XI, 13) when proposing his celebrated model of madness,
John Locke John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism ...
also refers to the glass delusion. In modern times, the glass delusion has not completely disappeared. There are still isolated cases today. "Surveys of modern psychiatric institutions have only revealed two specific (uncorroborated) cases of the glass delusion. Foulché-Delbosc reports finding one Glass Man in a Paris
asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent Asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea ...
, and a woman who thought she was a potsherd was recorded at an asylum in
Merenberg Merenberg is a municipality in Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Merenberg lies on the southern edge of the Westerwald between the district seat of Limburg and Weilburg. Neighbouring communities Merenberg borders in ...
." Andy Lameijn, a psychiatrist from the Netherlands, reports that he has a male patient suffering from the delusion in
Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...
. German alchemist
Johann Joachim Becher Johann Joachim Becher (; 6 May 1635 – October 1682) was a German physician, alchemist, precursor of chemistry, scholar and adventurer, best known for his development of the phlogiston theory of combustion, and his advancement of Austrian cameral ...
had a fascination with glass delusion. In '' Physica Subterranea'' (1669), he wrote that he discovered a way of turning dead human bodies into glass. However, Becher's claim was not true.


Historical cases


King Charles VI

King Charles VI of France Charles VI (3 December 136821 October 1422), nicknamed the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé) and later the Mad (french: le Fol or ''le Fou''), was King of France from 1380 until his death in 1422. He is known for his mental illness and psychotic ...
was famously afflicted by the glass delusion. He wore clothing that was reinforced with iron rods and did not allow his advisors to come near him due to his fear that his body would accidentally "shatter." He may have been the first known case of glass delusion.


Tchaikovsky

The neurotic behavior of the 19th-century Russian composer
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
seems reminiscent of the glass delusion, centering as it did on his difficulties caused by his belief that his head would fall off while conducting if he did not hold his chin. While the legend may be exaggerated, it seems to have some basis in fact. During Tchaikovsky's first attempt at conducting ''The Voyevoda'' in 1868, the composer "had felt that his head would fall sideways unless he fought to keep it upright." He mostly avoided conducting due to this affliction, expressing to his patroness "all my life I have been tormented by awareness of my inability to conduct. It has seemed to me there is something shameful and disreputable in not being able to stop myself trembling with fear and horror at the very thought of going out in front of the public with a baton." However, he later overcame his fear and successfully conducted ''The Enchantress'' in 1887.


Princess of Bavaria

Princess Alexandra of Bavaria Princess Alexandra Amalie of Bavaria (26 August 1826 – 21 September 1875) was a German princess and writer. Life Alexandra was born in Schloss Johannisburg in Aschaffenburg, the eighth child and fifth daughter of King Ludwig I of Bavaria and ...
believed that she had swallowed a glass piano as a child. She was convinced that the object remained inside her body from that point on, fearful that it may shatter and puncture her organs.


See also

*
Charles VI of France Charles VI (3 December 136821 October 1422), nicknamed the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé) and later the Mad (french: le Fol or ''le Fou''), was King of France from 1380 until his death in 1422. He is known for his mental illness and psychotic ...
*
El licenciado Vidriera "El licenciado Vidriera" ("The Lawyer of Glass") is a short story written by Miguel de Cervantes and included in his ''Novelas ejemplares'', first published in 1613. Plot summary Tomás Rodaja, a young boy, is found by strangers, apparently ab ...
*
Princess Alexandra of Bavaria Princess Alexandra Amalie of Bavaria (26 August 1826 – 21 September 1875) was a German princess and writer. Life Alexandra was born in Schloss Johannisburg in Aschaffenburg, the eighth child and fifth daughter of King Ludwig I of Bavaria and ...


Notes


References

* * * Brown, David (April 1992). ''Tchaikovsky: The Final Years 1885-1893''. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 97–98. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Glass Delusion Culture-bound syndromes Obsolete terms for mental disorders History of glass Mood disorders