Did Evagrius Ponticus (AD 346-99) Have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

Did Evagrius Ponticus (346-399) have OCD?

Jonathan Hill

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a well-recognised anxiety disorder.
Estimates of the prevalence of OCD vary. Until the mid-1980s it was thought
to affect perhaps 0.05% of persons. It is now thought to be much commoner,
a figure of around 2% often being cited, and if this is correct then it is
one of the commonest mental illnesses and one of the most debilitating in
its more serious forms.

Some have seen evidence of OCD, or OCD-like behaviour, in historical
figures including Samuel Johnson, Hakuin, Martin Luther, and John Bunyan.
Evagrius Ponticus, one of the most important monastic theologians of late
antiquity, should be added to the list.[i] Evagrius' acute interest in the
problem of disturbing 'thoughts' that plague the monk - and which would, in
medieval theology, become the 'Seven Deadly Sins' – is highly
understandable if he suffered from this condition. But more important,
Evagrius was the first architect of Christian spiritual discipline, who
pioneered ideas that would persist for centuries throughout the church and
especially within later monastic orders. If some of these ideas were rooted
originally in symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, this may open up a
new perspective on the issue of the relation between some religious
practices and problems, for example scrupulosity, and OCD.

The difficulties in diagnosing historical figures are well known. This is
especially so in the case of an ancient figure, Evagrius, about whom
relatively few biographical details are available. The paucity of the
evidence means that it is impossible to diagnose him with OCD, or with
anything else, with reasonable certainty. At the very least he had many of
the traits that are associated with the disorder. OCD comes in varying
degrees and forms and it is often recognised that some of its symptoms can
be displayed without these being severe enough for a diagnosis of OCD.
Evagrius was in this group at least, and could well have had the symptoms
sufficiently clearly to be diagnosed with OCD were he alive today.


Who was Evagrius Ponticus?

Evagrius Ponticus – or Evagrius of Pontus – was born in AD 346 in Pontus in
what is now northern Turkey, the son of a bishop.[ii] He lived in
Cappadocia as a young man where he came under the influence of Basil of
Caesarea (c. 330-379) and Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329-389), two of the
most prominent theologians of the age. He served as Gregory's assistant
when this older man became patriarch of Constantinople in AD 380 and stayed
there to work for his successor, Nectarius (d. 397), when Gregory was
deposed and returned to Cappadocia. However, after just a year or two he
was involved in a scandal with a married woman and fled to Jerusalem. Here
he lived for a while in the monastery of the famous scholar Rufinus of
Aquileia (c. 345-c. 415). After suffering a serious illness, apparently he
resolved to commit himself completely to the monastic life and he travelled
to Egypt to become a hermit in the desert. In AD 383 he arrived at Nitria,
one of the largest and most famous monastic communities in Egypt, on the
edge of the desert a couple of days' journey south from Alexandria. He
stayed here for a year or two before moving to the remoter community of
Kellia where he attached himself to the famous hermit Macarius the Great
(c. 300-c. 391). Here he became a famous spiritual mentor in his own right,
often plagued by groups of visitors to his cell. Among his disciples here
was John Cassian (c. 360-435), whose own writings – enormously influenced
by Evagrius – would play a pivotal role in the development of early
monasticism in Western Europe. Evagrius remained at Kellia until his death
in AD 399. He was doubtless buried in Kellia's extensive cemetery but, if
his tomb became a place of special veneration for the local monks, it was
not later preserved. The earliest tombs that modern archaeologists have
uncovered there date from several decades after Evagrius' death.

While in Egypt, Evagrius wrote several, mostly fairly short, books on the
monastic life.[iii] Some are treatises but others are collections of short
'chapters' or proverbs whose meaning is not always immediately obvious. In
these texts Evagrius set out in a rather unsystematic way a highly
systematic understanding of the monastic spiritual journey. His theology is
enormously influenced by Origen (c. 185-254), the great third-century
theologian, many of whose ideas were also central to the work of Basil of
Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus and Rufinus of Aquileia, Evagrius' mentors.
Like Origen, Evagrius believes that the mind is the most important part of
the human soul – indeed, the human soul is fundamentally mental – and that
in this respect it resembles God, who is a great mind. Spiritual and
intellectual growth therefore go hand-in-hand. Evagrius describes the
spiritual journey as involving two main parts. The first part is praktike,
or practice, during which the monk seeks to minimise the influence of the
non-mental parts of the soul. This is extremely difficult, not only because
the passionate and emotional parts of the soul keep on interfering with the
attempt but also because the mind itself is constantly troubled by
'thoughts' which are demonically inspired and which stir up the passions.
However, discipline and determination will eventually quieten the thoughts
and the passions alike, allowing the monk to enter a state of apatheia or
passionlessness. In this serene state, the monk can begin the second leg of
the spiritual journey, theoria or contemplation. The monk contemplates
first the physical world, then the spiritual world and finally God himself.

Evagrius' ideas were extremely influential. They seem to have remained
popular but controversial among many Egyptian monks for years after his
death and were the subject of major debates in the early fifth and mid-
sixth centuries. In the longer term, however, his acute analysis of the
problems facing the monk made an impact on the much wider Christian world.
Later monastic writers including John Cassian repeated his list of the
'eight generic thoughts' that eventually was slightly altered by Gregory
the Great (c. 540-604) to form the 'Seven Deadly Sins'. In the Orthodox
Church, Evagrius' writings about the divine light and the mystical
experience of intellectual union with God would inspire monastic writers
such as John Climacus (c. 579-c. 649) and, later, major mystics such as
Symeon the New Theologian (c. 949-1022). And in the Church of the East he
was considered one of the most important Christian writers of all. Babai
the Great (569-628), a leading Persian theologian, declared him the
greatest spiritual writer after Theodore of Mopsuestia (350-428), the
primary patristic authority in that church. In short, Evagrius Ponticus was
undoubtedly one of the most important and widely read spiritual writers in
Christian history.


The intrusive thoughts

The main criteria for diagnosing OCD, according to the DSM IV, are
obsessions and compulsions. It is important to note that in OCD these words
have a different meaning from usual. To have an obsession, in this context,
is not to spend a lot of time thinking about a particular subject; it is to
experience unwanted and unpleasant thoughts. And to have a compulsion is to
perform odd rituals, which may not even be physical: many OCD sufferers
perform mental compulsions, such as counting things. These are not the same
as obsessions because they are mental actions that the sufferer performs
rather than thoughts that appear unbidden.

We have considerable evidence that Evagrius experienced obsessions that
meet all the DSM IV criteria. In fact, these thoughts are one of the most
prominent topics of Evagrius' writings. They are the logismoi – literally
'thoughts' – against which he warns his readers. Although it does not
normally have notably negative connotations in other authors, the word
logismoi seems usually to be negative for Evagrius. And according to
Evagrius, there are eight kinds of these logismoi: gluttony, fornication,
avarice, sadness, anger, acedia (or listlessness), vainglory and pride.
Every sin begins with one of these thoughts.

Logismoi are thoughts rather than feelings or emotions but they stir up the
emotions. This is why they are so dangerous – they disrupt the rational,
intellectual nature of the soul by arousing passions. So despite their
appearance in the rational faculty of the mind, logismoi are, for Evagrius,
fundamentally irrational. They inhibit the proper function of the mind and
cause the sufferer to have a distorted view of reality: someone afflicted
by logismoi lacks understanding:

Just as a puppy almost from birth watches out for bread to snatch it,
so an evil thought seeks to snatch understanding from the heart.[iv]

This is also indicated by the fact that logismoi sometimes conflict with
each other. Sometimes this seems to be a natural consequence of the fact
that one thought often leads to another, different kind:

The wicked demons draw to their aid demons even more wicked, and if
they are opposed to one another in their dispositions they agree on one
thing alone, the destruction of the soul.[v]

At other times, Evagrius portrays the contradictory thoughts as warring
with each other, as well as with the will of the person they are plaguing:

When the demons see that we have not been inflamed to the boiling point
of offences, then rising up in a moment of stillness they pry open the
ruling faculty so that we may treat impudently in their absence those
whom we treated irenically in their presence. Therefore, whenever you
have issued a rebuttal or offence in response to your brother, consider
yourself as the one completely at fault, lest even in your stillness
you discover a battle of thoughts in your heart: one thought reproaches
you for the manner of the offences, another in turn reproaches you for
not having replied with terrible offences.[vi]

Here then, Evagrius envisages a situation where the monk cannot stop
thinking in two contradictory ways at once: he feels guilty for telling off
his friend but also wishes he had told him off more firmly. Evagrius
advises those in such a situation simply to regard themselves as completely
at fault, in order to silence these contradictory thoughts. In extreme
cases, the irrationality and persistence of the logismoi can bring about
what is effectively madness:

So then, when the heart resounds with the glory of the thoughts and
there is no resistance, he will not escape madness in the secret of his
mental faculties, for his ruling faculty risks being shaken loose from
its senses, either through dreams which are given credence, or through
forms that take shape during vigils, or through visions seen in a
change of light.[vii]

It is only when the monk achieves apatheia that he can pass from the
practical stage to the theoretical one: it is only when the logismoi have
been stilled that one can achieve understanding:

The kingdom of heaven is impassibility of the soul accompanied by true
knowledge of beings.[viii]

Padmal De Silva and Stanley Rachman describe the obsessions that
characterise OCD like this:

Obsessions are recurrent, persistent ideas, thoughts, images, or
impulses that intrude into consciousness and are experienced as
senseless or repugnant. They form against one's will, and the person
usually attempts to resist them, or get rid of them. The person
recognizes that they are his own thoughts. They also cause marked
anxiety or distress.[ix]

Evagrius certainly testifies that the logismoi are recurrent and
persistent, and he certainly considers them repugnant. His suggestion that
logismoi are irrational and can lead to madness is reminiscent of the
irrational or meaningless nature of many obsessions.

Another important element of OCD obsessions is that the sufferer does not
want them and experiences them passively – they just 'appear' in the mind –
but at the same time recognises that they are his or her own thoughts and
not 'voices' of other agents. Evagrius has a similar view of the logismoi.
He believes that each thought is associated with a demon that acts upon the
mind from outside, causing its associated thought to emerge within the mind
and trouble it. Evagrius is clear that demons have no access to the mind
from within, as it were. Rather, they manipulate the mind by acting upon
the body, especially certain parts of the brain. Logismoi are therefore
internal to the mind but have external causes. 'Demons', in other words,
are Evagrius' way of expressing the unwilled nature of certain mental
events.[x] This seems to express very well the experience of OCD sufferers:
obsessions are mental events, the sufferer's own thoughts, but they appear
contrary to the sufferer's will. Evagrius' language of 'demons' captures
this sense of obsessions being unwilled, but he never suggests the thoughts
are the voices of the demons speaking directly to the monk, something that
would be more reminiscent of schizophrenia than of OCD.

It is worth noting that Evagrius occasionally displays a certain
ambivalence towards the logismoi, by suggesting that there is something
seductive about them:

He who completely destroys evil thoughts in his heart,
he is like the one who dashes his children against the rock.[xi]

This reference is to Psalm 137:9 where the Hebrews are encouraged to dash
the Babylonians' children against rocks. Evagrius' alteration of the idea
to refer to one's own children, and his application of the image to
logismoi, are striking. Despite the influence of demons, logismoi are the
product of the mind itself: they are its children. To destroy them is thus
difficult not only because logismoi are powerful and persistent but also
because the mind does not necessarily want to destroy them. It is an
emotional wrench to do so. This mirrors the reports by some OCD sufferers
that they actually find their obsessions – or at least some of them –
comforting in their familiarity.


The plague of images

The DSM IV defines obsessions as 'thoughts, impulses or images'. The
Evagrian logismoi could be considered both 'thoughts' and 'impulses' since
they are temptations which the demons inspire not merely to annoy the monk
but in an attempt to make him sin. 'Images' too are a major concern for
Evagrius. He notes that the logismoi typically stir up mental images which
then may recur and bring with them the passion inspired by that thought –
for example, the face of someone who has angered the monk. He comments,
however, that there is nothing intrinsically demonic about such images –
which are perfectly natural – their negative aspect lies in the thoughts
that they arouse.

But in other places Evagrius considers mental images to be intrinsically
worrying. For example, he often insists that dreams are signs of mental
instability and even illness. Most important, however, are mental images of
God. These are particular images that the mind may form while trying to
pray. Evagrius repeatedly tells his readers that such images are to be
resisted; prayer should be performed without any mental images at all:

When you pray do not form images of the divine within yourself, nor
allow your mind to be impressed with any form, but approach the
Immaterial immaterially and you will come to understanding.[xii]

The reason for this is that God is immaterial and therefore any image of
him will be inaccurate. But Evagrius does not simply warn his readers not
to form such images; he also notes that such images will appear whether
they wish it or not:

Be on your guard for the snares of your adversaries, for it happens,
when you are practising pure and untroubled prayer, that they will
suddenly set before you some strange and alien form in order to divert
you into the presumption of rashly localizing the Divinity; their
purpose is to persuade you that the quantitative object suddenly
revealed to you is the Divinity, but the Divinity is without quantity
and without form.[xiii]

Interpreted as a symptom of OCD, the images against which Evagrius warns
seem unusual in some respects. Images that occur in OCD are usually
intrinsically unpleasant, often violent. It is the intrinsically unpleasant
nature of these images that causes distress to sufferers of OCD. But the
mental images of God that Evagrius seeks to eradicate seem quite different
in tone; they are pious images of God that appear while praying. However,
Evagrius is committed to the Origenist claim that God is utterly
incorporeal and intrinsically incapable of being represented visually.
Anything of which one may form a mental image therefore cannot be God. To
misidentify something as God is idolatry, the worst sin one can commit. For
Evagrius, therefore, to regard a mental image or its object as God is to
commit idolatry. These mental images, supposedly of God, are thus truly
horrific for him.


Coping mechanisms

Sufferers of OCD typically do not simply experience obsessions; they find
the obsessions unpleasant or upsetting, and usually try to avoid having
them:

Obsessions produce internal resistance which can take various forms,
such as endlessly debating with oneself, praying repeatedly, trying to
neutralize or wipe out the thoughts, or even escaping completely from
the situation in which the thought is experienced. Obsessions can also
lead the patient to avoid other people.[xiv]

This also seems to be true of Evagrius, who tells his readers:

Whether or not all these thoughts trouble the soul is not within our
power; but it is for us to decide if they are to linger within us or
not and whether or not they stir up the passions.[xv]

He describes techniques that can help to still the logismoi and enable the
monk to achieve apatheia. Most of these techniques are mental but Evagrius
characterises them as hard work, often using the imagery of warfare. This
warfare is also an ongoing work, one that must accompany physical work and
other activities:

Do not delay in paying the debt of prayer when you hear a thought [that
arises] by reason of the approach of work ... Just as our outward
person works with its hands so as not to burden anyone, so have the
inner person do its work with its mental faculties so that the mind may
not be burdened. For the thoughts bring to the soul their opposing
activity whenever they catch it unoccupied with godly considerations.
Therefore, do the work of manual tasks for the love of humanity and the
work of the rational mind for the sake of the love of wisdom, in order
that on the one hand there may be hospitality for guests and a
consuming fire for laziness, and on the other hand a guide to
contemplation and a winnowing of thoughts.[xvi]

There are several forms that this warfare can take. One of the most
important is the cultivation of knowledge. The logismoi are fundamentally
irrational, as we have seen. Evagrius therefore suggests that seeking to
understand them can be one way of overcoming them:

If one of the monks should wish to acquire experience with the cruel
demons and become familiar with their skill, let him observe the
thoughts and let him note their intensity and their relaxation, their
interrelationships, their occasions, which of the demons do this or
that particular thing, what sort of demon follows upon another and
which does not follow another, and let him seek from Christ the reasons
for these things. For the demons become quite infuriated with those who
partake more gnostically in the practical life ... [xvii]

In another passage, Evagrius recommends dissecting the thought in order to
find out which element is the sinful one: he argues that it is not the mind
that has the thought, or the thought itself, or the object of the thought
but the passion that the thought arouses. He adds:

As you engage in this careful examination, the thought will be
destroyed and dissipate in its own consideration, and the demon will
flee from you when your intellect has been raised to the heights by
this knowledge.[xviii]

The implication in this case is that focusing on the thought will
neutralise it: instead of being occupied with the thought itself, the mind
is occupied by thinking about the thought and this drives it out. In other
words, one can silence a thought through mental activity of a different
kind. Evagrius often offers advice of this kind. In general, he tells his
readers, conscious and deliberate mental activity is the key to silencing
the logismoi. Sometimes Evagrius suggests focusing on other thoughts that
do not have these negative effects. In one passage, for example, he
instructs his readers to think about their own deaths, the wickedness of
the world, the sufferings of those in hell, the day of judgement and the
future rewards of the righteous; they are particularly to think about
gaining these rewards and avoiding the punishments meted out to sinners.
Evagrius concludes:

Watch out lest you ever forget these, whether you happen to be within
your cell or somewhere without. Do not detach your thinking from the
recollection of these things, so that through these you may escape
defiling and harmful thoughts.[xix]

Evagrius also suggests particular objects of thought to combat certain
logismoi. Pride, for example, is to be resisted in this way:

Remember your former life and your transgressions of old, and how,
while you were caught in the passions, you made the transition to
impassibility by the mercy of Christ, and how in turn you left the
world that had inflicted upon you many and frequent humiliations ...
Such thoughts instil humility and deny admittance to the demon of
pride.[xx]

More remarkable is Evagrius' advice that, since some logismoi are
completely incompatible with each other, one can banish one by entertaining
the other. For example, one cannot entertain thoughts of vainglory and
fornication at the same time and so when a monk suffers from the one then
deliberately thinking about the other can drive it out. Evagrius notes that
it is preferable to resist the logismoi by thinking about holy things, but
much harder.

A particular kind of mental activity that Evagrius recommends as a means of
blocking out the logismoi is prayer. This is often identified as a common
method to which many OCD sufferers resort. Evagrius instructs his readers
to prayer unceasingly:

He who prays unceasingly escapes temptations,
but thoughts agitate the heart of the careless one.[xxi]

A related technique is the memorisation of passages from the Bible,
addressing the unwanted thoughts. Evagrius wrote a whole treatise – the
Antirrheticus – listing biblical verses to consider when attacked by each
of the logismoi. Evagrius also recommends non-mental methods of combating
the logismoi. The main one is the practice of askesis, or asceticism:
denial of the various appetites of the body, above all hunger, thirst, and
the need for sleep:

Do not give yourself to the trough of the stomach,
and do not fill yourself with nightly sleep.
For in this way you will become pure,
and the spirit of the Lord will come over you.[xxii]

Such practices were very common among the monks and hermits of the desert,
not only in Egypt but elsewhere too: indeed, the Syrian church seems to
have been highly ascetic even among laypeople. However, Evagrius is unusual
in that he recommends the practice of askesis not simply as a means of
conquering the body and freeing the mind to see God but specifically as a
means of silencing the logismoi.

Compulsions

It seems, then, that Evagrius suffered from obsessions. What of
compulsions?

A compulsion is a repetitive and seemingly purposeful behaviour that is
performed according to certain rules or in a stereotyped fashion. It
may be wholly unacceptable or, more often, partly acceptable. The
behaviour is not an end in itself but is usually intended to prevent
some event or situation. However, the activity is not connected in a
logical or realistic way with what it is intended to achieve ... or it
may be clearly excessive ... The act is preceded or accompanied by a
sense of subjective compulsion – that is, the person feels a strong
urge to engage in the behaviour.[xxiii]

Evagrius' techniques for combating the logismoi described above do not fit
this description of compulsions, mainly because they seem to be reasonable
(focusing on one thought does usually drive out another) and because they
seem to be effective (Evagrius tells us that disciplined use of them will
bring about apatheia). Compulsions do not have these features. However,
Evagrius does recognise that some of the techniques he recommends may take
on these features:

When the demon of gluttony, after numerous and frequent struggles,
lacks the strength to destroy the abstinence well formed within us, he
throws the mind into a desire for an extreme asceticism. Subsequently,
he brings forward the companions of Daniel, their poor life and the
grains; he evokes the memory of certain other anchorites who have
always lived in this way or who began to, and he compels him to become
their imitator so that in pursuing an immoderate abstinence he may fail
to attain even a moderate on, the body not being strong enough because
of its weakness.[xxiv]

Here, Evagrius envisages that normally sensible behaviour – the practice of
askesis – can become compulsive. The monk feels 'compelled' to follow it to
such a degree that he is physically unable to sustain the practice.
Evagrius attributes such a phenomenon to the same demonic activity that
brings about the logismoi themselves; indeed, it is the familiar demon of
gluttony, reversing its usual techniques to bring about an equally
destructive effect upon its victim. We can note, in particular, that
Evagrius links the compulsive practice of askesis with intrusive thoughts
about famous ascetics, such as Daniel's companions or more recent monks.
Addressing such problems, Evagrius recommends moderation. Although the
practice of askesis is good, it should not become an end in itself. Ascetic
behaviour must be toned down when circumstances call for it – when the monk
is ill, for example, or receiving guests.[xxv]

Another possible compulsion exhibited by Evagrius involves numbers. Numbers
are a very common feature in both obsessions and compulsions reported by
OCD sufferers. Often sufferers treat particular numbers as 'magic' or
significant in some way. Counting, or other forms of mental manipulation of
numbers, is a common compulsion among OCD sufferers. Evagrius seems to
reflect this in the preface to his work On prayer where he explains why the
main body of the work has 153 chapters. The number is taken from John 21:11
– the number of fish caught in the disciples' net – but Evagrius gives it
added mystical significance:

Having divided this treatise on prayer into one hundred and fifty-three
[chapters], we have sent you an evangelical feast, that you may
discover the delightfulness of the symbolic number, as well as the
figure of the triangle and the hexagon: the former indication the pious
knowledge of the Trinity and the latter the description of the ordering
of the present world.

The number 100 is itself square, whereas the number 53 is triangular
and spherical, for 28 is triangular and 25 is spherical, for 5x5=25.
You then have a square figure not only for the fourfold of the virtues
but also for a wise knowledge of the present age, represented by the
number 25 on account of the cyclical nature of time periods; for week
moves on to week and month to month, and time rolls round from year to
year; and season follows season, as we see in the movement of the sun
and moon, of spring and summer, and so on. The triangle might indicate
to you the knowledge of the Holy Trinity. But if you take 153 as
triangular by virtue of the multitude of numbers (of which it is the
sum), think of the practical life, natural contemplation and
theological contemplation, or faith, hope and charity, or gold, silver
and precious stones.[xxvi]

Numerology – in the sense of attributing numerical values to letters,
working out the values of names or words and then comparing the values of
different words to establish connections between them – is not uncommon in
early Christian writers.[xxvii] However, number mysticism – the
interpretation of particular numbers as intrinsically significant – seems
to have been much less common. The only other passage in an early Christian
writer similar to this one is in Methodius of Olympus (d. 311).[xxviii]
Moreover, Evagrius is the only Christian writer of this period to divide
his work up according to the principles of number mysticism and then to
explain the divisions in such a way. Indeed, his division of the Praktikos
into one hundred chapters was not only original but initiated a genre of
spiritual writing, the 'century' or hundred-chapter treatise. This suggests
a concern for numbers, and an interest in their manipulation, considerably
out of the ordinary. But whether this reflects a number-related compulsion
on Evagrius' part is not easy to determine.

List-making is another common compulsion. There are a number of passages
where Evagrius gives long and exhaustive lists of things, for example:

The ranks of the intelligible body are also these: life and death,
health and sickness. Its dispositions are these: sitting and standing,
walking and reclining, silent and garrulous. Its movements are these:
hunger, sleep, lust, rage, fear, distress, enmity, sloth, disquiet,
cunning, savagery, pride, mournfulness, lamentation and wickedness. The
opposite movements are these: satisfaction, vigilance, loathing,
serenity, fortitude, gladness, love, diligence, quiet, simplicity,
meekness, humility, joy, consolation and goodness. Its senses are
seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling.[xxix]

His short treatise On the vices opposed to the virtues consists of little
more than a series of such lists, each giving all the qualities associated
with the logismoi and their opposites. Indeed, Evagrius' habitual
enumeration of the eight logismoi might itself be considered another such
list. Clearly, the making of such lists is not itself necessarily
pathological although certainly it is a common feature of OCD sufferers.

Another detail of Evagrius' life may be relevant too. After fleeing his
love affair with a married woman in Constantinople, Evagrius spent some
time at the monastery of Melania in Jerusalem. However, his attempt to lead
a monastic life was temporarily derailed by his own vanity, in particular
his concern over his appearance. The Coptic Life tells us that Evagrius was
in the habit of changing his clothes twice a day. Whether he had always
habitually changed his clothes twice a day or had begun doing so only
during this period in Jerusalem we are not told, but we might reasonably
infer that he had been doing this for some time. The same text tells us
that before his spell in Jerusalem, Evagrius had a dream in which an angel
instructed him to leave Constantinople. In the dream Evagrius had answered,
'Give me one day to load my clothes on the boat and I swear to you I will
leave this city.'[xxx] Evagrius evidently had a lot of clothes and was
highly concerned about them.

The compulsion to change one's clothes often, or to get dressed, undressed
and dressed again, is fairly common among people with OCD, some of whom
take hours to get up in the morning as a result. Evagrius, it seems,
changed his clothes several times throughout the day rather than repeatedly
when getting up and we are told he did so out of vanity. But even if his
biographer – or Evagrius himself, telling the story to him – considered his
actions to be motivated only by vanity, that would not rule out considering
this a possible compulsion. People with OCD often 'rationalise' their
compulsions in various ways – telling themselves, for example, that they
really might have left the front door unlocked and that this is why they
are going back to check it repeatedly.


Evagrius the worrier

There is, then, very good evidence that Evagrius suffered from obsessions
and some evidence that he suffered from compulsions too. To this we can add
evidence that he displayed other symptoms often associated with OCD.

OCD is usually classified as an anxiety disorder: sufferers exhibit
heightened anxiety in general, not merely about their obsessions. Evagrius
reports that general anxiety is another tool of the demons. After
mentioning Jesus' command not to worry (Matthew 6:25-34), Evagrius
comments:

This too, however, is a custom of the demons, namely, after impure
thoughts, to instil thoughts of anxiety, so that Jesus turns aside,
because of the multitude of mental representations in the place of the
intellect; and his word, choked off by the thorns of anxiety, is
rendered fruitless.[xxxi]

Some of Evagrius' writings suggest in other ways that he was a highly
anxious person. His earliest known writing is the Sermon or dogmatic letter
on the most holy Trinity, written to friends in Cappadocia while he was
still in Constantinople working for Gregory of Nazianzus. In it he speaks
of his intense desire to learn from Gregory in order to quell his own
ruminations on theological topics, imploring his readers: 'A little time, I
beg you, grant us a little time!'[xxxii] That may be attributable to a
normal desire of a student to remain with his teacher, or even to
rhetorical excess. But there are other indications of worry in Evagrius'
writings that are more uncommon. After his prologue to the Praktikos,
Evagrius adds a very unusual note to future copyists:

I pray the brothers who come upon this book and wish to copy it not to
join one chapter to another, nor to place on the same line the end of
the chapter just written and the beginning of the one about to be
written, but to have each chapter begin with its own beginning
according to the divisions which we have marked also by numbers. In
this way the ordering of the chapters can be preserved and what is said
will be clear.[xxxiii]

In itself there is nothing pathological about such a concern, of course,
despite its rarity in texts of this kind, although it certainly testifies
to some level of anxiety on the part of its author. It might also be
thought that the concern is somewhat baseless. Evagrius specifies that the
chapters should all be numbered, in which case it would surely not much
matter if they were copied without line breaks as well – the reader would
still be able to tell where one chapter ended and the next began. We may
also note that Evagrius' concern that his chapters be copied correctly may
be linked to his interest in numbers; by writing down the text in the
proper format, copyists would be emphasising the fact that it contained
precisely one hundred chapters.


Depression

Depression is often reported as accompanying OCD. Sometimes it is thought
to result from the OCD and sometimes the symptoms of OCD are thought to be
a response to the depression; either way, patients with both problems
commonly report that the symptoms of both get worse or better in tandem.

The symptoms of depression are well known, involving not simply a sad mood
but also listlessness, inability to sleep or to work, and altered appetite.
These and similar symptoms are reported by sufferers who also have OCD –
and Evagrius reports them too. In fact, two of the eight logismoi –
'sadness' and 'acedia' (or 'listlessness') – seem to consist largely of
depressive symptoms:

Sadness is one who dwells over loss, who is familiar with frustrated
acquisition, a forerunner of exile, remembrance of family, a deputy of
want, a kinsman of acedia, a complaint of exasperation, a reminder of
insult and a darkening of the soul, dejection in morals, drunkenness of
prudence, a soporific remedy, a cloud of form, a worm in the flesh,
sadness of thoughts, a people in captivity.[xxxiv]

Sadness is characterised as a great weight upon the soul that prevents the
sufferer from achieving anything:

Sunlight does not penetrate a great depth of water; the light of
contemplation does not illumine a heart overcome by sadness.[xxxv]

When under its sway, the monk cannot pray as he should. Moreover, sadness
brings with it other negative passions including anger. Evagrius identifies
sadness as a physical ailment as well as a spiritual one, with physical
manifestations although he does not specify what they are.

'Acedia', or 'listlessness', which Evagrius notes is a companion of
sadness, sometimes appears to be fairly normal tiredness or boredom with
one's work. But at other times it appears more extreme – not simply an
unwillingness to work or study, but a complete inability to do so:

Acedia is an ethereal friendship, one who leads our steps astray,
hatred of industriousness, a battle against stillness, stormy weather
for psalmody, laziness in prayer, a slackening of ascesis, untimely
drowsiness, revolving sleep, the oppressiveness of solitude, hatred of
one's cell, an adversary of ascetic works, an opponent of perseverance,
a muzzling of meditation, ignorance of the scriptures, a partaker in
sorrow, a clock for hunger.[xxxvi]

It is striking that Evagrius does not simply see sadness and acedia as
accompaniments to the eight logismoi but numbers them among them. If it is
right to interpret his descriptions of their effects as an account of
depressive disorder, then Evagrius – like modern patients diagnosed with
both OCD and depression – experienced the symptoms of depression as closely
linked to the symptoms of OCD. For him, depressive symptoms were exactly
the same in kind as obsessions and were to be resisted in the same way.


Conclusion

Allan Beveridge has warned of the dangers of 'medical reductionism', that
is assuming that diagnosing an individual with some condition will explain
everything about them.[xxxvii] We should certainly resist such a tendency
in interpreting the complex theology of Evagrius Ponticus. But if we do
recognise OCD traits in Evagrius then we may draw some interesting
conclusions.

A tendency for sufferers of OCD to display symptoms related to excessive
religiosity or excessive concerns about religious morality has sometimes
been noted.[xxxviii] It is striking to consider that one of the most
important founders of Christian monasticism may have displayed similar
symptoms. On the one hand, Evagrius' influence may have helped to make
Christian monasticism – and, more widely, the lifestyle of disciplined
askesis – both peculiarly suited to those already prone to symptoms of OCD
and also, perhaps, likely to encourage such symptoms. The fruits of that
tendency would be felt in later centuries when spiritual directors found
themselves having to deal with problems such as 'scrupulosity' in their
charges. But on the other hand, Evagrius' influence also helped to provide
that tradition with resources to combat such symptoms. Palladius tells us
that Evagrius suffered terribly from all eight of the demons he enumerated
but that eventually he managed to resist their attacks to such an extent
that he was no longer bothered by the 'thoughts' that had plagued him.
There is every reason to suppose that, through the centuries, many more
people also managed to silence similar 'thoughts' by following his advice.



References

-----------------------
[i] Overviews of Evagrius' life and thought include Brakke, D. Demons and
the making of the monk: spiritual combat in early Christianity Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 2006:48-77; Casiday, A. Evagrius Ponticus
London: Routledge, 2006:3-38; Sinkewicz, R. Evagrius of Pontus: the Greek
ascetic corpus Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003:xvii-xl; Harmless, W.
Desert Christians: an introduction to the literature of early monasticism
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000:311-71; Driscoll, J. The 'Ad
monachos' of Evagrius Ponticus Rome: Benedictina Edizioni Abbazia S. Paolo,
1991:5-23; and Bamberger, J., ed. Evagrius Ponticus: The Praktikos and
Chapters on prayer Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian, 198:xxiii-xciv
[ii] The main source for Evagrius' life is Palladius (368-c. 430), his
former disciple at Kellia. Two versions of Palladius' biography of Evagrius
exist. One is part of the Greek Lausiac history, which is translated in
Meyer, R, ed. The Lausiac history New York: Newman, 1965. The other, which
is rather longer and fuller, is the Coptic Life of Evagrius. Although a
Coptic translation, this version may be closer in content to what Palladius
himself originally wrote, and it is translated in Vivian, T, ed. Four
desert fathers Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2004
[iii] Evagrius' works are difficult to cite because their transmission has
been so patchy: many survived only in Syriac or Armenian translations, or
in fragmentary form and others were misattributed to other writers
(especially Nilus the Ascetic [d. c. 430]). This is one reason why until
recently Evagrius' importance was usually underestimated. Some of his works
have still not been edited and others exist in imperfect or partial
editions. In this the following English translations have been cited:
Casiday, A. Evagrius Ponticus London: Routledge, 2006 (C); Sinkewicz, R.
Evagrius of Pontus: the Greek ascetic corpus Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2003 (S); and Driscoll, J. The "Ad monachos" of Evagrius Ponticus
Rome: Benedictina Edizioni Abbazia S. Paolo, 1991 (D)
[iv] Ad Eulogium 32 S 57
[v] Praktikos 45 S 105
[vi] Ad Eulogium 5 S 32-33
[vii] Ad Eulogium 34 S 58-59
[viii] Praktikos 2 S 97
[ix] De Silva, P. and Rachman, S. Obsessive-compulsive disorder: the facts
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004:2
[x] Of course Evagrius believes that demons really exist and are the causes
of the appearance of logismoi in the mind. From a purely phenomenological
point of view, it is suggested his references to 'demons' express the
experiential fact that logismoi are involuntary
[xi] Ad monachos 45 D 53; see also Ad Melanium 64 C 77, where Evagrius
talks of being held back by the chains of things that please him, without
specifying what they are
[xii] De oratione 66 S 199
[xiii] De oratione 67 S 200
[xiv] De Silva and Rachman, 2004:5
[xv] Praktikos 6 S 97-98
[xvi] Ad Eulogium 9 S 36
[xvii] Praktikos 50 S 106
[xviii] De malignis cogitanibus 19 S 166
[xix] Rerum monachalium rationes 9 S 10. Other monks must have found this
advice particularly helpful, as the passage appears as a lengthy 'saying'
in the chapter devoted to Evagrius in the Apophthegmata patrum. See Ward,
B., ed. The sayings of the desert fathers Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian,
1975:54
[xx] Praktikos 33 S 103
[xxi] Ad monachos 37 D 51
[xxii] Ad monachos 97 D 63
[xxiii] De Silva and Rachman, 2004:6
[xxiv] De malignis cogitanibus 35 S 177-78
[xxv] Rerum monachalium rationes 10 S 10
[xxvi] De oratione prologue S 192. A triangular number is the sum of a
series of consecutive numbers beginning with 1, such as 1+2+3. A square
number is the sum of a series of odd numbers beginning with 1, such as
1+3+5, and a hexagonal number is the sum of a series of every other odd
number beginning with 1, such as 1+5+9. A spherical number, when squared,
appears as the last digits of its square. See Harmless, 2004:339-41
[xxvii] Barry, K. The Greek Qabalah: alphabetic mysticism and numerology in
the ancient world York Beach, MA: Weiser, 1999:136-42
[xxviii] Convivium decem virginum 8.11
[xxix] Ad Melanium 41 C 72
[xxx] Vivian, 2004:77
[xxxi] De malignis cogitanibus S 157
[xxxii] Sermo sive dogmatica epistula de sanctissima trinitate C 47
[xxxiii] Praktikos S 97
[xxxiv] De vitiis quae opposita sunt virtutibus 3 S 63
[xxxv] De octo spiritibus malitiae 5.22 S 83
[xxxvi] De vitiis quae opposita sunt virtutibus 4 S 64
[xxxvii] Beveridge, A. Diagnosis of historical figures Journal of medical
biography 2004;12:126
[xxxviii] Since early modern times, Catholic moral theology has used the
term 'scruples' to refer to obsessive religious concerns. In a way
strikingly reminiscent of Evagrius, Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) attributed
these to the actions of demons. See Puhl, L, ed. The Spiritual Exercises of
St. Ignatius Chicago, IL: Loyola University Press, 1951:154-56. Some modern
commentators have argued that 'scruples' are symptoms of OCD; see
Ciarocchi, J. The doubting disease: help for scrupulosity and religious
compulsions New York: Paulist, 1995