The concept of mental disorder in Maltese traditional lore

Abstract

The study of popular beliefs and traditions throws an illuminating light on the mental organisation of our ancestors and of the unlettered section of contemporary society. It reveals how the primitive mind tries to explain the unfamiliar in conformity with mankind's budding experiences of a puzzling and often hostile world. Much of this lore appears incomprehensible and nonsensical to us today, but its meaninglessness, like the strangeness of schizophrenic thinking will disappear if its underlying motive can be discovered.