On December 2nd, the Medical Humanities Reading Group met to discuss lupê and its place in Greco-Roman conceptions of psychological illness. The reading group consists of faculty across disciplines and both Danforth and Medical campuses at Washington University. At every meeting a different member of the group assigns a set of readings and commits to leading discussion on them. This session Luis Salas led the group in a reading of Galen's treatise, peri alupias (On the avoidance of distress), discovered in 2005. Until its discovery, peri alupias was known only by title. The letter, a consolatio to an unnamed friend, details Galen's advice on how to manage the psychological effects of traumatic loss. Not only is peri alupias interesting for what it tells us (and does not tell us) about ancient categories of psychological health and disease but also for what it reveals about the production and maintenance of medical literature and materials in the High Roman Empire.
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