Jean Teulé’s work, Invitation to the Dance, translated into Turkish by Sel Publications in 2020, is one of the books that impressed me the most with its subject and descriptions. The successful author’s latest book, Invitation to the Dance novel, is set in the city of Strasbourg in 1518. This book, a medieval critique, is based on a real event. This medieval historical fiction, which effectively reflects the history and breaks your heart with its vivid descriptions, explores various aspects of the Middle Ages, shedding light on politics, religion, and social life. The book is told from the eyes of many characters from different perspectives, and a holistic picture of the event is drawn.
The Dancing Epidemic in Strasbourg: A Historical Overview
The book tells the story of an interesting epidemic that started in the city of Strasbourg: a dancing epidemic in Strasbourg 1518. An uncontrollable dancing craze that spread throughout the city over time… A disaster that politicians, clergymen, or even scientists cannot explain, an apocalypse that everyone is looking for an answer to, but the answer is obvious…
Let’s take a look at the individuality of the event that went down in history as a case of social hysteria case study and is the subject of this book, and its place in psychology.
Characters and the Individuality of the Event
As I mentioned before, the book is told through the eyes of many characters. Let’s take a look at these characters to understand the individuality of the Strasbourg dancing plague.
Enneline appears before us as the wife of an engraver. She walks through the misery of the city, carrying her newly weaned baby in her arms. Then she leaves her baby in the river and returns home. This scene breaks our hearts and shocks us at the same time. When she returns home, she is the one who starts the epidemic. We can learn the secret of this event from the experiences of her neighbors, who were among the first to catch the epidemic. The neighbors, who ate their own little daughters out of hunger, put the child’s flesh-stripped skull on the fireplace mantel to suffer. Enneline chooses to kill her baby in order not to eat her.
The people, who we are sure have experienced similar situations, catch Enneline’s disease and turn the streets into a place of celebration. This is a horror festival because these people do not stop until they fall to the ground from hunger and exhaustion. Blood is flowing from their feet, their muscles are torn, but they continue their dance of death in medieval Europe.
The Author’s Descriptive Power
The author’s power of description in these scenes gives you the feeling that you are in the middle of the event, as if you too could catch this epidemic, take to the streets, and start dancing. You feel the pain of these people as your own pain, as the pain of those you know. At the same time, the consistency of his historical narrative shows us that he knows that period well and has worked hard to prepare for this Jean Teulé historical novel.
Historical Context and Societal Challenges
These epidemic problems astonished the city leaders, and they were helpless in their search for a solution. In addition to the troubles they had been dealing with during that period, trying to control this epidemic was a great burden for them. However, they could not see that there was a cause-and-effect relationship. Due to the climatic conditions of the period, famine had emerged and brought poverty with it. All the resources that existed were not for the people but for the egoism of the clergy and the aristocracy. All the resources were at the disposal of the church, and they had no intention of sharing them with the people; they were after more money to sell indulgences. Those who died and caught the epidemic did not concern them at all. For the aristocrats, spending money on the expected Turkish invasion and feeding the soldiers was more important than for the ordinary people. This rumor caused the entire city to be seized by a fear-driven social hysteria.
The village in sight doesn’t need a guide. Or does it?
Lacanian Psychoanalysis: The Dancing Epidemic as a Symptom
From the perspective of Lacanian psychoanalysis theory, this dancing epidemic is nothing but a symptom. A symptom has both its own meaning and its own psychoanalytical meaning. What we call a psychoanalytical symptom definition is the representation in our body and consciousness of what is brewing in our unconscious pools. Symptoms can be diverse and are also temporary and variable. While it manifests itself as anxiety disorders in some, it is depressive in others. Sometimes it manifests itself as health problems, sometimes it is in our habits and behaviors. It is possible to treat the symptoms, but it does not solve the problem itself. The unconscious continues to show the same problem in different symptoms.
Jacques Lacan says, “The unconscious takes shape like a language.” It hides hidden meanings inside; the thing that shows and the thing that is shown are not the same.
How Can Symptoms Be Addressed?
So how will these symptoms go away? It is not always necessary for the symptoms to pass or improve. What is important is to try to understand what our unconscious is telling us through analysis. Afterwards, the symptom will either turn into something that the person will accept or into a behavior that they aim to change.
Psychoanalysis for unconscious exploration teaches us to discover what is processed in our unconscious. This is a mental adventure that you will start with an expert and then continue on your own.