Joan Of Arc Research Paper

French Leader: Blessed or Bonkers? A French leader from the Middle Ages believed she had messages sent from God to help her life choices. She heard voices and had visions in which she experienced encounters with holy saints, and used those encounters to convince others to let her be in war. Joan of Arc’s voices and visions were not actually sent from God, but they were a mental illness. Joan of Arc was a French leader during the time of 1413-1431. Her visions and voices were actually epileptic hallucinations. She heard certain sounds which triggered these hallucinations to happen. Joan experienced these hallucinations at night, making them epileptic seizures. Joan of Arc’s visions and voices were not holy, but instead a mental illness. Joan of Arc was a French army leader during the Hundred Years War. She was France’s most popular heroine and saint (Brooks 14). She was named a saint on May 16, 1920 (“Joan of Arc”). Joan of Arc was born in Domremy, France on January 6th, 1413 and lived until 1431 when she
About forty percent of people with epilepsy have seizures while they sleep and some can hear voices during these episodes (Miller). In Joan’s case, she would be in this forty percent. “Joan of Arc also sometimes experienced seizures during sleep. ‘…I was asleep: the Voice woke me… It awoke me without touching me’" (Griffiths). A very obvious symptom of epileptic seizures is hallucinating, or seeing things that aren’t there (Schachter). In the quote stated earlier, Joan reported that there was a voice who woke her. Having a voice present during these seizures is a major sign of epilepsy. Joan was reported to have had a private examination on March 12, 1431. Doctors took the facts from her examination and concluded she may have had epilepsy (Griffiths). When Joan of Arc thought that voices were waking her at night, she was actually having epileptic