Demonized Emotions and Tortured Bodies in the Age of Scientific Progress

During the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras, efforts to exterminate witches were grounded in existing Western sciences and promoted as an product of scientific, as well as religious, understanding. This chapter discusses the central role played by the demonization of negative emotional states in the witch-hunts, documenting misogynistic scientific and religious views, which emphasized women’s inferiority due to their more emotional or non-rational nature. The chapter stresses the extensive influence of the witch-hunts not only on Western cultures and societies but specifically on its sciences and the academy.