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The Furies, characters in Aeschylus’ Greek play The Eumenides, contracted Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder after an extended period of time over which they were severely verbally abused and mistreated. The Eumenides displays the mockery and bullied state in which the Furies exist, as well as their resulting vengeful compulsions. As the combination of PTSD and OCD has a magnifying effect on anxiety disorder symptoms, the Furies’ obsession with matricidal revenge became powerful and consumed their purpose for existing.
One cause of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a prolonged period of exposure to severe teasing or bullying. A recent study done at McMaster University, Ontario on the connections between anxiety disorders and bullying stated that participants oftentimes contracted OCD as a result of intense mockery (Antony, 190). In this research project, test subjects were asked if they were ‘“ever bullied or severely teased”’ (Antony, 189) as well as to rate their “level of anxiety in social situations” (Antony, 189). Fifty Percent of participants with OCD admitted to undergoing severe teasing: this percentage does not include those who reported a more mild experience of being mocked (Antony, 190). Researchers found that there is a legitimate “relationship between self-reported history of teasing experience
and anxiety disorders” (Antony, 192). As such, it can be construed that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder may develop in a person who has been excessively teased and bullied.
As many OCD cases can be proven the result of mocking, it can be concluded that the Furies’ vengeful compulsions are the result of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The Furies impulsive need to avenge Clytaemnestra’s death in The Eumenides, crying out “You’ll give me blood for blood, you must! / Out of your living marrow I will drain / my red libation, out of your veins I suck my food” (Aeschylus, 243). The necessity that revenge has become to the Furies leads them to consider it their right as supernatural beings and their sustenance. The Furies explain their need for vengeance by recalling “memories of grief… disgraced, degraded…banished far from god to a sunless, torchlit dusk” (Aeschylus, 248). While finding no love or acceptance among their quintessential fellows, the Furies discover that “Deep in the halls of Earth they call us [the Furies] Curses” (Aeschylus, 248). Synonymous the study on anxiety disorders done by McMaster University professors, the Furies contracted Obsessive Compulsive disorder from having been shamed and pushed away from both their mortal and divine neighbors.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, another anxiety disorder is oftentimes induced by stressful, negative situations. Psychologists from the University of Aarhus in Denmark recently did a study on the “impact of traumatic events and negative life events on children and adolescents” (Elklit, 56). These researchers asked test subjects, all eight-graters, to describe what they believed to have initiated their PTSD (Elklit, 58). Twenty-eight percent of all test-subjects, referred to “humiliation or persecution by others/bullying” (Elklit, 59) as being the sole cause of their trauma. It was also discovered that females contract PTSD twice as often as males (Elklit, 56). It can be concluded that females are more prone to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the anxiety that accompanies a bullying experience can easily trigger PTSD.
As females are more liable to contract Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the likelihood of acquiring PTSD from having been bullied is high, it is easily established that the Aeschylus’ Furies had PTSD. The female nature of the Furies is revealed through a reference to them as the “goddesses of the earth” (Aeschylus, 236) and the Furies’ own consideration of themselves to be the “daughters of Night” (Aeschylus, 266). Characterized as females, the Furies, despite their immortal standing as “the Furies, / absolute till the end of time” (Aeschylus, 248), were able to contract PTSD. The Furies display their history of being bullied by both peers and lesser beings-humans- by reiterating their experiences: “Driven under the earth, / condemned, like so much filth” (Aeschylus, 268). The Furies, prone to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to their femininity, contracted said anxiety disorder from having been mocked.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can co-exist within a person who has experienced extreme anxiety at some point in his or her life. A recent study on a possible correlation between the two disorders found that about forty percent of test subjects pre-diagnosed with OCD met criteria for PTSD (Baer, 69). Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, both initiated by anxiety, such as prolonged, severe bullying, can and do often exist synonymously. A similar study focusing more on the effects of OCD and PTSD combined found that, when this occasional partnership occurs, “obsessions were experienced as more intrusive and distressing, and compulsions as more distressing and difficult to suppress” (Biederman, 516). Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, when synonymous, increase exponentially both disorders’ symptoms.
The Furies had both Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Data from researchers allows that the Furies’ obsession with matricide victims and compulsion to avenge their deaths was much stronger than any normal compulsion or obsession would be had they only one of the two anxiety disorders. They are affected by their need for revenge to the point that the Furies mutter in their sleep, “Get him, get him, get him, get him- / there he goes” (Aeschylus, 236). Their waking day is “bound to avenge their [matricide victims’] blood, / we rise in flames against him to the end” (Aeschylus, 245). The abnormal intensity of the Furies’ revenge-based obsessions and compulsions are a direct result of the coexistence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder within them.
Research has proven that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder paralleled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder results in ordinal habits. Psychiatrists have recently concluded that a person with both anxiety disorders “engages in ritualistic behavior” (Biederman, 517). These behavioral patterns occur as a direct result of a person with both OCD and PTSD’s lessened ability to control their obsessive thoughts and compulsions.
Aeschylus’ Furies sought revenge routinely and addictively throughout The Eumenides as a
result of their Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder working in a synchronized manner. The Furies display ritualistic behavior through their excessive celebration of vengeance: “Come, Furies, dance! - / link arms for the dancing hand-to-hand... witness bound to
avenge their blood / we rise in flames against him to the end” (Aeschylus, 245). This match to the symptoms of combined PTSD and OCD serves as further evidence of the Furies’ psychological discrepancies.
A study done on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in veterans from Iraq revealed that PTSD can cause sleep disturbances in those who have that anxiety disorder. Said study proclaims that “sleep disturbance is so prevalent in PTSD, it is considered a hallmark of PTSD diagnosis” (Kuhn, 336). Presence of sleep agitation, therefore, in one who has experienced severe anxiety, is likely a symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Aeschylus’ Furies display another symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in their disturbed sleep. When sleeping, the Furies “mutter” (Aeschylus, 236) and are continually “moaning” (Aeschylus, 236). Their sleep agitation serves as another external symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Aeschylus’s use of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in characters of an ancient Greek tragedy, despite the fact that neither anxiety disorder was discovered until centuries afterward, shows that both have been visibly affecting people for years. Aeschylus had no way of knowing that PTSD and OCD existed as they did not in his time period. As such, PTSD and OCD must have been something Aeschylus observed in people around him and thereby based off of such observations the mental nature of the Furies. Aeschylus’ use of the mockery of the Furies as the instigating factor in their psychological issues serves to show that bullying is not a recent thing, nor should it ever be taken lightly. Aeschylus’ use of mental
abnormalities caused by stressful mockery in The Eumenides reveals that anxiety disorders are nothing new under the sun, and that bullying has always played a considerable role in the onset of PTSD and OCD.
Works Cited:
Aeschylus. The Oresteia. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin, 1979. Print.
Antony, Martin M., Andrea Liss, Randi E. McCabe, Laura J. Summerfeldt, and
Richard P. Swinson. “Preliminary Examination of the Relationship Between Anxiety Disorders in Adults and Self-Reported History of Teasing or Bullying Experiences.” Brunner/Routledge 32.4 (2003): 187-193. JSTOR. Web. 29 Oct. 2011
Biederman, Joseph, Alyssa Faro, Daniel A. Geller, Daniel L. Lafleur, Hannay C. Levy,
Elizabeth Mancuso, Katherine McCarthy, and Carter Petty. “Traumatic Events and Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder in Children and Adolescents: Is there a link?” Journal of Anxiety Disorders 25 (2011): 513-519. JSTOR. Web. 29 Oct. 2011
Elkit, Ask, Janne Gytz Olesen, and To’ra Petersen. “Victimization and PTSD in a
Faroese Youth Total-Population Sample.” Scandinavian
Journal of Psychology 51 (2010): 56-62. JSTOR. Web. 29 Oct. 2011
Kuhn, Renee, Richard Landward, David L. Lipschitz, Yoshio Nakamura, and Gavin West. “Two Sessions of Sleep-Focused Mind-Body Bridging Improve Self-Reported Symptoms of Sleep and
PTSD in Veterans: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.” Journal of Psychosomatic Research 70 (2011): 335-345. JSTOR. Web. 12 November 2011
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