Psychiatric Evaluation and Diagnosis of Joan of Arc

Section I: Introduction

Joan of Arc was born in 1412 in Domremy, France. She grew up in a home with devoutly religious parents, and she was greatly committed to the service of God at a young age. According to Pettinger (2007), At the age of 12, she began to have visions and hear the voices of saints and of God. She said the visions felt very real to her and during several of the visions, she felt the presence of saints and bright lights would appear (Pettinger, 2007).

During the early 1400s in France there was great conflict and the crown of France was in dispute. In 1428, Joan was being prompted by voices of saints that told her to join forces with Dauphin Charles of France, in order to fight for the crown of France. Barstow (1986) found that, She traveled to Vaucouleurs to ask for permission to join the Dauphin in order to help him drive the English out of France (Barstow, A.L., 1986). Joan believed that she was on a mission from God and her conviction inspired others to join her efforts in driving out English forces. After seeing Joan of Arc’s great passion and persistence the Dauphin provided several military men to help Joan in the battle against the Burgundians and the English (The Biography Channel, n.d.).

During her travels, Joan dressed like a man to disguise herself and to avoid getting caught by the enemy. According to Williamson (n.d.), If a woman’s identity were to be discovered, she faced the chance of getting raped. Joan also wore this clothing for its security and because she was surrounded by male soldiers, Joan felt she should wear the clothing for modesty’s sake. she promised the saints who spoke to her that she would keep her virginity and called herself “La Pucelle,” the maiden or virgin (Williamson, n.d.). ...

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...riences were normal part of her religion. All factors must be taken into account before rendering a diagnosis.

When looking at possible diagnoses several came into consideration but were later ruled out. These include: schizophrenia, schizophreniform, delusional disorder, delirium, peduncular hallucinosis, cerebral neoplasms, and temporal lobe focus epilepsy. Treatments for these diagnoses include the implementation of medications in order to treat the positive symptoms that Joan of Arc experienced. Also therapy would be considered in order to focus on social and learning skills. However in order for treatments to be effective there must be a disorder or underlying problem present and after looking at Joan of Arc’s life it appears that her behavior was not distressing, dysfunctional, or deviant to her culture and therefore cannot be diagnosed with a mental disorder.