[Delusions of witches and suppression of femininity in the Occidental culture from the analytic viewpoint].

In this study, we look into the historical roots of the witch-hunt. For a period of 540 years, between 1241 and 1782, the burning of witches has been well documented. During these 540 years witch-hunts were simply the culmination of a passionate hostility against femininity as such within western culture. As can clearly be seen in the texts of the great medieval theologians, the humiliation and degradation of the female sex--and the condemnation (or diabolization) of sexuality as well as antisexual prejudices--originate from a pre-Christian, heathen-mythological way of thinking, which was largely established by the medieval church as a form of syncretism and the notions of which persist even today. In those days the compulsive regulation of sexuality and the threat of the torments of hell, if one did not obey these rules, initiated the vicious circle of failure, guilt and fear in people's minds and so made it impossible to overcome the Oedipus complex. This regression to the 'anal stage of development' prepared the ground for sadomasochistic destructiveness, which was (supported by superstition) projected outwards onto the so-called witches.