When my sister sent me the above photo Iimmediately asked her where she had taken it. Oddly enough, her answer was ‘Ina museum’. I immediately Googled “Viscountess Anne Conway + headache” and soondiscovered that Anne did indeed suffer from a mysterious headache for virtuallyall her life. She died in 1679.
I wonder what people thought of herheadaches back then. Did they think she was a hypochondriac? A liar? A witch?An emotionally unstable, neurotic woman in need of some fresh sea air?
Anne was actually a highly respected 17thcentury philosopher, metaphysicist and intellectual whose ideas and criticismson Descartes and Hobbes influenced later writers.
Her debilitating chronic headaches arementioned in a number of sources. From what I have researched, I am unable tosay whether Anne suffered from one persistent headache or a series ofcontinuous attacks. It seems to me it was probably one continuous headache, butgiven that most people do not even believe such a thing possible, over time I thinksome physicists and historians may have eventually settled for ‘headaches’ inthe plural.
Her severe headache perplexed friends anddoctors alike, leading her to try all sorts of (dangerous) cures includingmercury and opium, albeit to no avail. In a desperate attempt to cure theheadache, Anne even travelled to France to be trepanned. No one dared proceedwith the operation and eventually her jugular arteries were opened instead – anequally risky procedure. A renowned alchemist and healer was even invited toAnne’s country home to try and rid her of the debilitating pain, but herheadache persisted. It continued to baffle eminent physicians and doctors forthe rest of her life.
It appears her headache started at the age of 12.It was initially attributed to her excessive studying habits, although a number of sources claim it started following a severe illness accompanied by fever, whichleft a lingering headache that continued for the rest of her life.
The headache had a clear influence on herlife and ideas:
“Theway her own suffering from increasingly debilitating headaches contributed tothe development of her philosophical assessment of pain as an integral part ofthe process of purification adds an autobiographical element to her writingthat is all too often ignored in the analysis of philosophical systems.”***Anne was not considered mad, mentallyunstable or neurotic given her constant headache and pleas for help. If onlyour doctors, like those four centuries ago, believed us when we say we sufferfrom a continuous headache that never goes away.
* http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/conway.html **http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=11&ved=0CD8QFjAAOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sunypress.edu%2Fpdf%2F61627.pdf&ei=5cgzUNrrGYfFswaX9YCwDg&usg=AFQjCNHCa6s3Ei64Hef225RGkcG2C17f3w***http://www.scribd.com/doc/76534622/Anne-Conway-E3P1DBdnZv
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