Europe's Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom

"Cohen was the first historian to establish firmly that a paranoid delusional system, which would result in the diagnosis of insanity if displayed in an ordinary individual, could, when promulgated by a prophet, infect a group of disciples. If this group attained power, the whole of society could become dangerously deluded. For the Nazis, the enemy was the Jews; for Marxist-Leninists, the bourgeoisie....Cohn is a learned, scrupulous scholar whose conclusions are always backed up by rigorous research, and who writes wonderfully elegant prose. At the same time, he is a bold and innovative historian who has ventured into previously unexplored areas of the history of ideas. We know that men are not primarily governed by reason; but Cohn has unequivocally demonstrated that the worst horrors of which men are capable are the result of delusional ideas which are not confined to the insane, but which lurk in the depths of the minds of all of us. If hopes are disappointed, or if ordinary life is disrupted by catastrophe, these subterranean paranoid fantasies are activated and can lead to monstrous cruelties."Norman Cohn is the author of 'Europe's Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians in Medieval Christendom', published 2001 under ISBN 9780226113074 and ISBN 0226113078.