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Wearing the wolf skin: psychiatry and the phenomenon of the berserker in medieval Scandinavia

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posted on 2023-06-09, 23:51 authored by Michael Heath, Maxwell CooperMaxwell Cooper
This paper examines the berserker, a frenzied warrior attested to in both the written and material sources of medieval Scandinavia, and elucidates the characteristics that define him. It critiques explanations for the phenomenon offered in the existing historiography and whether this can be explained as a psychiatric diagnosis. It concludes that the berserker cannot be simply defined as a culturally bound or other psychiatric syndrome, or accounted for by psychogenic drugs alone. Instead, it proposes that berserk frenzy constituted a transitory dissociative state shared among a small warband steeped in religious/spiritual ideology. In entering this state, the psyche of the berserker was reconstituted in an almost archetypal pattern. Further research is required into this phenomenon in other contexts, including modern conflicts.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

History of Psychiatry

ISSN

0957-154X

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Department affiliated with

  • Primary Care and Public Health Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2021-05-14

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2021-05-14

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2021-05-14

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