3.3 The pulse of love

Whether you classify a pulse by numbers or by ‘feel’, what does it mean for your health? Professor Helen King and Dr Laurence Totelin discuss how the pulse was used in the ancient world to diagnose the disease of ‘lovesickness’ and how the ability to detect this became a mark of a great doctor.

One of the doctors who used this ability to enhance his reputation was Galen in the second century CE. He wrote his own account of his diagnosis of the wife of Justus.

Read pages 95 and 101–103 of the following link to Galen’s account then watch Video 6: http://galen.bbaw.de/ epubl/ online/ cmg_05_08_01.php [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] . (Note, you can reach these pages most easily by typing page numbers into the box on the right of the word ‘Seite’ (page) and then clicking OK).

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Transcript: Video 6 The pulse of love

HELEN KING

I'm Professor Helen King. I'm Professor of Classical Studies at the Open University. And I'm here today to talk to Dr. Laurence Totelin of Cardiff University.

LAURENCE TOTELIN

Hello, Helen.

HELEN KING

Hello. We're going to talk about love.

LAURENCE TOTELIN

Indeed.

HELEN KING

So, big question-- why would love be seen as a disease?

LAURENCE TOTELIN

Well, it's only seen as a disease when it doesn't get any resolution.

HELEN KING

OK, so unrequited love then.

LAURENCE TOTELIN

That's right, yes.

HELEN KING

So what are the physical symptoms of this unrequited love?

LAURENCE TOTELIN

Well, there are many, and they've been described most beautifully by Sappho, who was a poetess in the seventh century BC. And she describes those symptoms as becoming very pale, sweating, shivering, being unable to speak, seeing blank, and also a buzzing noise in the ears. And that perhaps can be interpreted as a disturbance in the pulse.

HELEN KING

So the pulse then becomes a very important way of deciding if someone has got this disease.

LAURENCE TOTELIN

Yes, it is. And we do have many stories from antiquity where taking the pulse is the way to diagnose lovesickness.

HELEN KING

So let's unpack one of those stories of ancient physicians diagnosing lovesickness then, the story of Dr. Erasistratus and his patient, Prince Antiochus, the son of the King Seleucus.

LAURENCE TOTELIN

Yes. So Erasistratus was a very famous physician in the third century BC, and he was called to the court of Seleucus because Prince Antiochus was ill. And Erasistratus tried to diagnose the illness through the pulse, and he found the pulse of the prince to be normal until he saw his stepmother, the queen, Stratonice.

HELEN KING

So what happens after that?

LAURENCE TOTELIN

Well, there was a very odd ending to that story, because Antiochus was allowed to marry his stepmother, Stratonice. The king, Seleucus, allowed him to do that. He passed on his wife to his son.

HELEN KING

That does seem quite bizarre to us, doesn't it? I mean, are there any sort of explanations as to why this story would happen, other than to prove know what a great doctor Erasistratus was?

LAURENCE TOTELIN

Yes. It's quite possible that there were dynastic issues, and that King Seleucus wanted to step down in favour of someone younger and stronger.

HELEN KING

I see. So it's cunning, really, isn't it?

LAURENCE TOTELIN

It's very cunning. And Stratonice was still very young and very beautiful and, most importantly, able to bear children.

HELEN KING

Because she'd had a son already, hadn't she?

LAURENCE TOTELIN

That's right.

HELEN KING

Yeah. So, OK, she was obviously good wife material.

LAURENCE TOTELIN

She was, very much so.

HELEN KING

So there's also the story of Dr. Hippocrates treating Perdiccas, and he's lovesick for his father's concubine. So there seems to be a bit of a pattern here. Is one story based on another one here, or what?

LAURENCE TOTELIN

Yes. So it would be very difficult to know which one is based on which one, but it's clear that we have motifs here in those stories. We have patterns. And they are all based on one idea, and that's the very clever physician coming to a very important character who is in love with someone who is not attainable.

HELEN KING

Yes. Hence, the unrequited thing.

LAURENCE TOTELIN

Yes, exactly.

HELEN KING

Well, the other one, of course, changes the whole gender argument here. Because in both stories we've talked about, the patient is a man.

LAURENCE TOTELIN

Yes.

HELEN KING

But with Dr. Galen, he treats the wife of Justus, and she's lovesick for a different unattainable object, a dancer, someone well below her status.

LAURENCE TOTELIN

Yes. So there is a very important gender aspect to all the stories. And I think, from a modern point of view, we're used to stories of unrequited love being women who are lovesick. But these ancient stories do have men patients in them, as well as sometimes female patients.

HELEN KING

If we see the sorts of images we're get in the Renaissance and early modern Europe, it's always a girl who's lying there, looking a bit pathetic and rather pale, with a doctor, hand on her wrist, feeling her pulse, diagnosing what's going on. What's happening with these images?

LAURENCE TOTELIN

Well, you say "pathetic," but I think there's another way to interpret this. You could see this patient as being quite attractive. She's a damsel in distress and paleness makes her very pretty.

HELEN KING

But also, she can be a bit of a minx, can't she? Because sometimes you've got a nurse or a maid or someone offering him a letter like her lover's written, and we're not supposed to show that in front of the doctor.

LAURENCE TOTELIN

Yeah. So there's a lot of intrigue going on in those paintings. There's a lot of sexual tension in there.

HELEN KING

Also, you do still get some men suffering from lovesickness. There's a case in the Renaissance that the doctor, Louis Ferrand, talks about, who was a lovesick scholar. And again, it's that classic pattern where he's talking to the patient, attractive maid comes in holding a lamp just as he's having his pulse taken. Now suddenly, it goes boom, boom, boom. And he goes pale, he goes red. He can't speak. Exactly the same things that Sappho was talking about in the seventh century BC. And then he confesses that, actually, he's in love with this girl. But Louis Ferrand says he would consent to be cured only by the one who had wounded him.

So what's the cure for lovesickness?

LAURENCE TOTELIN

Well, the cure is very beautifully put in there. It is really to get what he wants. So to find resolution for his unrequited love, and that is simply by having sex with the object of his love.

HELEN KING

So there you go. That's how to cure the disease.

LAURENCE TOTELIN

Indeed

End transcript: Video 6 The pulse of love

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Video 6 The pulse of love