The scourge that lays waste at noon: Monks, acedia, and the anthropology of depression

Seminar presented by Dr Richard Irvine (University of St Andrews) as part of the SOAS Anthropology and Sociology Department Seminar Series

Abstract

Attentive to the ways that inertia can take hold of life, Catholic monks recognise despondency as a potential not only within the monastery, but in contemporary society more widely. Such experiences are regularly mapped onto an understanding of what early Christian monks termed ‘acedia’ (a Greek term that can be translated as ‘lack of care’).

Given that acedia has sometimes been treated as part of the pre-history of the clinical category of depression, in this paper Dr Irvine draws on research among English Benedictines to consider what we can learn from the monastic refusal to privatise acedia and strip it of its social dimensions. Relatedly, he also considers the significance of framing such a presence as demonic.

Speaker

Richard Irvine is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews. His research spans the anthropology of religion and environmental anthropology, and he carries out fieldwork in the UK and Mongolia. He is the author of An Anthropology of Deep Time (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and The Vow of Stability (Scottish Universities Press, 2025).

Registration

The event is free to attend, but external/non-SOAS visitor are required to sign up in order to support smooth and timely access to SOAS.

The seminar series is funded by a grant from UKRI. SOAS launched its Centre for Anthropology and Mental Health Research in Action (CAMHRA) this year, as a centre that aims to foster collaborations between anthropology and mental health research and practice.

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