Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

Aristotle on melancholy 145of association from being disturbed by other bodily movements. The euthuoneiriaof melancholics (referred to here as eustochia, ability to makethe right conjecture, which suggests a greater degree of activity) 27 seems tobe based on the ability to ‘perceive similarities’ ( );on other occasions Aristotle relates this ability to a special natural disposition(phusis or euphuia) and considers it an important principle for poetryand philosophy. 28 Aristotle’s explanation of the prophetic dreams of melancholicsis therefore in line with his remark in Mem. 453 a 15 (quoted above).It is difficult to see how these statements can be reconciled with Insomn.461 a 22–3. In this passage Aristotle brackets melancholics together withthe feverish and the intoxicated as examples of people who see confusedand monstrous images in their sleep and whose dreams themselves are notcoherent ( ). The cause of this blurriness is that all these affectionscontain air () and therefore produce much movementand confusion. 29 It is clear that these remarks are in stark contrast with thecharacterisation of melancholics as ‘having clear dreams’ (euthuoneiroi) inDiv. somn. 463 b 15–17 and as ‘hitting the mark’ (eustochoi) in464 a 33,where the clear dreams of the melancholics are explained as a result of theirsensitivity to ‘being subjected to many and manifold movements’!Given the close connection between both treatises (Div. somn. 464 b9–10 even refers to Insomn. 461 a 14ff., i.e. to the direct context of thepassage on melancholics), it is highly unlikely that Aristotle was unawareof this contradiction. To solve this problem, B. Effe (1970, 85 n. 49) hassuggested a different interpretation of the word euthuoneiros: not ‘dreamingclearly’, but ‘dreaming rightly’, that is to say, ‘dreaming the truth’. Yeteven if this interpretation of euthuoneiros is adopted, it remains impossibleto square Aristotle’s remark in Insomn. 461 a 22–3 (with its contextof distortion of images in dreams) 30 with the possibility to dream rightly.27 To interpret the difference between the two passages as an antithesis between passive susceptibilityand active seeking is to a certain extent misleading, for this more active ability also escapes consciousrational control (cf. Mem. 453 a 14ff., in which the word is used, but with the explicit notethat recollection in these people is ‘beyond their control’, ’ . The ‘daemonic’ natureof the effect of the human phusis actually consists in the fact that it escapes rational control, i.e. itis ’ (cf. Somn. vig. 453 b 23–4; Eth. Nic. 1179 b 21ff.)28 464 b 1: 464 b 7 explicitly mentions the perceptionof similarities , but the purpose of this passage is to portray the abilityof the interpreter of dreams to determine the resemblance between dream and reality in cases inwhich the dreams are not actually clear. See below (section 6) for the significance of this principlein Aristotle’s views on cognitive psychology.29 30 461 a 10ff.: ...(15)