This essay revisits the case of Joan of Arc through the lens of modern psychiatric and philosophical inquiry, questioning whether the voices she claimed to hear reflect genuine mental illness or something more contextually reasonable. Drawing primarily on G. Graham's The Disordered Mind (2010), the paper compares Joan's experiences to those of biblical figures Abraham and Jesus Christ, exploring how cultural and historical context shapes the definition of delusion. The essay argues that Joan of Arc's interpretation of her voices was logical within her own time and social environment, and that her extraordinary military accomplishments challenge the assumption that she suffered from a debilitating condition such as schizophrenia.
The paper models contextualist reasoning: rather than applying present-day standards anachronistically, it evaluates historical figures by the epistemic tools available within their own cultural moment. This technique — asking what was reasonable given the evidence available at the time — is drawn directly from Graham's philosophical framework and applied consistently throughout the argument.
The essay opens with background on Joan of Arc and poses the central diagnostic question. It then introduces Graham's framework through biblical analogies before applying it directly to Joan. The paper addresses the Church's perspective, explores what Joan might have experienced had she lived today, and engages briefly with competing modern diagnoses before concluding with the author's own reasoned position. The structure is linear and argumentatively cumulative.
Thanks to many media representations, Joan of Arc has become something of a household name. Also known as Jeanne or Jehanne d'Arc, this extraordinary young woman fearlessly led the French Army to victory at a time when it appeared obvious to all but her that they would lose. In addition to devising military strategies that would ultimately lead them to triumph, Joan of Arc also boosted the morale of her soldiers to such an extent that they rapidly moved from deep despair about their prospects as an army toward a unified front that few could defeat.
In the end — and perhaps this is the most well-known part of her story — Joan of Arc met her tragic end by being burned at the stake as a heretic, or a witch at worst. Joan was burned because she claimed to hear the voices of the saints telling her not only to lead the French Army, but also how to lead them. The information available to the church fathers, the highest authority of the time, led them to believe that Joan of Arc was either a witch, a heretic, or influenced by the devil. All of these "sins" could have only one outcome: death at the stake. To the church leaders, this must have appeared as the logical step following Joan of Arc's trial and conviction.
Today, however, the most likely outcome for Joan would have been commitment to a mental institution. Generally, those who hear voices are considered to be suffering from some form of mental disorder, most commonly diagnosed as schizophrenia. On the other hand, some may argue that this was not the case in Joan of Arc's particular circumstances. Many different speculations have begun to emerge regarding her diagnosis and conviction. Can it not be said, for example, that the information available to us today is limited in ways similar to what was available to Joan's initial accusers? Although we would hardly burn her at the stake today, who is to say that a judgment of schizophrenia is any more accurate than one of witchcraft? It is well known that we continue to learn about the brain and its functioning and that we have only scratched the surface. The psychiatric profession is therefore based on incomplete and often speculative understanding of an organ about which we know relatively little. It is therefore very interesting to revisit the case of Joan of Arc in the light of various modern speculations regarding mental illness and diagnosis.
One such interesting framework for speculation is found in G. Graham's The Disordered Mind (2010). One particularly thought-provoking chapter considers Abraham from the Old Testament and Jesus Christ from the New Testament to discuss the possible delusions of these figures. Being drawn from religious Christian texts, such an assessment is highly controversial, but it nonetheless provides an interesting basis for speculating about Joan of Arc's situation as well.
In the case of Abraham, for example, Graham considers the old man's conviction that God wanted him to sacrifice his only son. In the light of his history with God and the promise of a vast nation he would father, this was an odd request, since Isaac was Abraham's only and final hope that this promise would be fulfilled. The fact that Abraham did indeed attempt to make the sacrifice is traditionally reported as a "triumph of religious faith" (Graham, 2010, p. 210). However, Graham speculates about what such a conviction might be perceived as today. Believing that God asked him to sacrifice his only son can be seen as an indicator that Abraham was delusional and needed to be committed to a mental institution — that he had lost contact with reality.
Graham takes the discussion further by first considering the nature of delusion itself. Being "unrestrained by common sense or relevant background factual knowledge" (Graham, 2010, p. 210), delusional thinkers hold bizarre convictions, which certainly describes Abraham's belief that he should sacrifice his only son. Any father would recoil from such a request, yet Abraham, demonstrating "faith" in God, gathers what is required for the sacrifice and makes his way to carry it out, because the voice commanding him is apparently divine. By any modern standard, taking such a voice at face value would be considered delusional. This is the inevitable conclusion if today's common conception of delusional thinking is applied to Abraham's situation.
When one applies this kind of speculation to Joan of Arc, it becomes easy to label her as delusional. She heard voices she considered divine and acted upon them with little regard for consequences to herself or those around her. Those who consider delusions a major component of severe mental illness such as schizophrenia might commit her immediately and place her under observation, if not on medication to suppress whatever neurochemical process is causing the disordered thinking.
However, Graham (2010, p. 211) cautions that we should be careful. While Joan of Arc — and indeed Abraham — would be considered highly delusional today, can one say the same of the context within which these two figures operated? Graham points out that, even though Abraham's voice experience may not truly have been the voice of God, what cause did Abraham have at the time to believe otherwise? He used the information available to him to make sense of the experience. Hence, although highly unreasonable within today's context, Abraham's response might be considered reasonable within his own. He used the evidence available to him and to his social and cultural context to interpret what he was experiencing, and there is therefore more logic behind his reasoning than there appears to be at face value.
The same might be said both for the Church that convicted Joan of Arc and for Joan herself. Joan experienced voices that spoke to her, or so she claimed, and she maintained this even under the threat of being burned alive. Although delusional by today's standards, what mental or evidentiary tools did she have to believe otherwise? Nothing was commonly known about mental illness or the brain during Joan's time. Furthermore, she perceived the plight of the French Army as something the voices asked her to alleviate, and so she acted on them. To denounce these voices, even at the threat of burning alive, would have meant denouncing her fundamental sense of herself and her mission.
In the light of Graham's analysis, I find myself drawn more toward the interpretation that Joan of Arc simply employed a process of reasoning that was logical not only to her, but also within the culture and context in which these experiences occurred. One might therefore regard her actions and beliefs as reasonable given the facts available to her at the time. One important consideration here is what she was able to accomplish. Few individuals suffering from extreme delusions — as hers would be classified today — are capable of accomplishing much beyond institutionalization. Delusions and mental illness tend to be debilitating, or at the very best to erode the consistency of even the most brilliant mind. Mental illness cannot, in and of itself, be reliably channeled to produce great achievements. For Joan of Arc, however, the voices helped her accomplish a remarkable military victory before she was finally convicted and executed.
In the light of this, I believe that Joan of Arc was not necessarily mentally ill or even delusional as such. Instead, I believe she was driven by an inner conviction that it was both her duty and within her ability to help the French Army gain the upper hand.
Graham, G. (2010). The disordered mind: An introduction to philosophy of mind and mental illness. New York: Routledge.
Keko, D. (2011, May 29). Joan of Arc: The visions. Examiner.com. Retrieved from
National Post. (2014). Joan of Arc's secret. Retrieved from
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