--JOSEPH SMITH: CRAZY AS A LATTER-DAY JAY BIRD--
Mormonism's founding flake was--to put it bluntly--a walking, talking testament to mental illness whose personal psychological issues, combined with his genetic pre-disposition to brain disorder, produced a dingbat with a head in a hat who manifested classic signs of being deranged, strange and unarranged.
To put it mildly, the evidence seems--(how best to put it?)--overwhelming, as noted in the examinations below.
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--Woo-Woo Unto You: Mormonism's Over-Sexed, Polygamous, Hallucinating, Moody, Manic-Depressive Prophet--
Quoting from Jerald and Sandra Tanner's analysis, "Joseph Smith Mentally Ill?":
"Dr. Lawrence Foster [hypothesized in a 1993 'Dialogue' article] . . . that Joseph Smith may have been mentally ill. . . . While it may be true that Foster did not use the specific words 'mentally ill . . . ,' he very strongly implied that Joseph Smith had a serious mental problem.
"Foster's hypothesis is that Smith suffered from manic-depression, which is certainly a form of mental illness. In his article . . . Foster wrote:
"'In no area were Joseph Smith's manic qualities more evident than in his efforts to introduce and practice polygamy during the last three years of his life. The point at which Joseph Smith began systematically to introduce polygamy to his closest associates has strong suggestions of mania. . . . his subsequent surge of activity with the sixteen or more women with whom he appears to have sustained sexual relations as plural wives . . . is even more suggestive of the hypersexuality that often accompanies manic periods.'"
("Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought," Winter, 1993, pages 4, 7, 9-13)
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"Quoting . . . from his article, Foster further explains his hypothesis that Smith's involvement in polygamy may, in fact, have been rooted in his manic depressive state:
"To place this issue into a larger context, let us return to the perspectives of William James . . . and realize that religious prophets, including Joseph Smith, are is some sense, at least initially, 'sick,' 'disturbed,' or 'abnormal.' . . .
"Why did Joseph Smith feel so preoccupied with introducing plural marriage among his followers . . . . Was there some hidden psychological key that could help make sense of this seemingly obsessive drive? . . .
"A variety of factors including . . . Joseph Smith's own strong sex drive all made plural marriage an idea with considerable power for the Mormon prophet . . . Was Smith, as some of his previously most loyal followers at the time asserted, losing touch with reality during his final months in Nauvoo?
"A compelling psychological approach to explaining this and other puzzling features of the Mormon prophet's behavior during this period was suggested to me by a Mormon psychiatrist, Dr. Jess Groesbeck. . . . gradually the explanatory power of the interpretation came to seem more and more compelling to me.
"Groesbeck argued that many aspects of Joseph Smith's behavior, especially during the last years of his life, appeared strikingly similar to behavior that psychiatrists associate with manic-depressive syndromes.
"Although one could understand that any individual under the pressures Joseph Smith faced might have experienced substantial mood swings, in the Mormon prophet's case those mood swings appear so severe that they may be clinically significant.
"Groesbeck also pointed out that there is substantial evidence that tendencies toward manic-depression tend to be inherited. Although many people are aware that one of Joseph Smith's brightest and most appealing sons, David Hyrum, tragically lapsed into insanity and spent the last years of his life in a mental institution, few realize at least six other male descendants of the Mormon prophet also have suffered from psychological disorders, including manic-depression. . . .
"According to Harold I. Kaplan and Benjamin J. Sadock's 'Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry': '. . . The increased activity often takes the form of sexual promiscuity, political involvement, and religious concern. . . . Delusions and hallucinations are not unusual. . . . It is quite common for the person to communicate with God and to have it revealed that he or she has a special purpose or mission. Patients frequently describe themselves as an 'organ' of God through whom God speaks to the world.'
"In the various forms of manic-depressive illness, the manic highs alternate in bipolar fashion with periods of depression. . . .
"How do descriptions of psychological mania square with Joseph Smith's actions during the last three years of his life[?] . . . To anyone who has worked closely with the records of the Mormon prophet's life during those final years, the parallels are striking. . . .
"Most obvious is the Mormon prophet's extraordinary expansiveness and grandiosity throughout this period. During the last year of his life . . . Smith served as mayor of Nauvoo and head of his own private army, became 'king' of his secret Kingdom of God . . . ran for president of the United States . . . and was the 'husband' in some sense of dozens of wives. . . .
"In no area were Joseph Smith's manic qualities more evident than in his efforts to introduce and practice polygamy during the last three years of his life. The point at which Joseph Smith began systematically to introduce polygamy to his closest associates has strong suggestions of mania. . . . his subsequent surge of activity with the sixteen or more women with whom he appears to have sustained sexual relations as plural wives (the full number may have been much greater) is even more suggestive of the hypersexuality that often accompanies manic periods."
"("Dialogue," pp. 4, 7, 9-13) . . .
"If the First Vision is viewed as an hallucination, and the revelation to establish polygamy as a natural result of manic-depression, then one can be more sympathetic with Joseph Smith's strange behavior. Under this hypothesis many things about Joseph Smith can be explained."
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--One Peepstone Short of a Full Hat: Fits of Uncontrolled Anger--
". . . Foster stated that [manic depression] could account for 'Joseph Smith's ferocious anger in . . . the last couple of years of his life.' It could also help explain why Smith became the 'head of his own private army, became 'king' of his secret Kingdom of God . . . [and] ran for president of the United States . . .
"Joseph Smith . . . was [certainly] prone to violence. While Mormon writer John J. Stewart claimed that . . . Smith was 'perhaps the most Christ-like man to live upon the earth since Jesus himself,' this conclusion is not supported by 'Joseph Smith's History': 'I am not so much a "Christian" as many suppose I am. When a man undertakes to ride me for a horse, I feel disposed to kick up and throw him off, and ride him.'
("History of the Church," vol. 5, p. 335)
"Unlike the gentle and soft spoken man portrayed in the Mormon film, 'Legacy,' Joseph Smith was without question a fighting prophet. He not only liked to wrestle and prove his strength, but he sometimes kicked people and struck them very hard. Historian D. Michael Quinn observed that Smith was a "church president who physically assaulted both Mormons and non-Mormons for insulting him . . .'
(Quinn, "The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power," 1994, pp. 261-262)
"Jedediah M. Grant, a member of the First Presidency under Brigham Young, told of 'the Baptist priest who came to see Joseph Smith. . . . [T]he Baptist stood before him, and folding his arms said, 'Is it possible that I now flash my optics upon a man who has conversed with my Savior?' 'Yes,' says the Prophet, 'I don't know but you do; would not you like to wrestle with me?' That, you see, brought the priest right on to the thrashing floor, and he turned a sumerset right straight. After he had whirled round a few times, like a duck shot in the head, he concluded that his piety had been awfully shocked . . .'
("Journal of Discourses," vol. 3, pp. 66-67)
"Joseph Smith's close friend, Benjamin F. Johnson, made this observation after Smith's death:
"'And yet, although so social and even convivial at times, he would allow no arrogance or undue liberties. Criticisms, even by his associates, were rarely acceptable. Contradictions would arouse in him the lion at once. By no one of his fellows would he be superseded.... one or another of his associates were more than once, for their impudence, helped from the congregation by his foot. . . . He soundly thrashed his brother William . . . While with him in such fraternal, social and sometimes convivial moods, we could not then so fully realize the greatness and majesty of his calling.'
(Benjamin F. Johnson, letter to Elder George S. Gibbs, 1903, as printed in The "Testimony of Joseph Smith's Best Friend," pp. 4-5)
"Mormon writer Max Parkin refers to a court case against Joseph Smith in which Calvin Stoddard, Joseph Smith's brother-in-law, testified that, 'Smith then came up and knocked him in the forehead with his flat hand -- the blow knocked him down, when Smith repeated the blow four or five times, very hard -- made him blind -- that Smith afterwards came to him and asked his forgiveness . . .'
("Conflict at Kirtland," citing from the "Painesville Telegraph," June 26, 1835)
"Parkin also quotes Luke S. Johnson, who served as an apostle in the early Mormon Church, as saying that when a minister insulted Joseph Smith at Kirtland, Ohio, Smith, ‘"boxed his ears with both hands, and turning his face towards the door, kicked him into the street,' for the man's lack of charity."
(ibid., p. 268)
"In the 'History of the Church' for the year 1843, we read of two fights Joseph Smith had in Nauvoo:
"'Josiah Butterfield came to my house and insulted me so outrageously that I kicked him out of the house, across the yard, and into the street."
("History of the Church," vol. 5, p. 316)
"'Bagby called me a liar, and picked up a stone to throw at me, which so enraged me that I followed him a few steps, and struck him two or three times. Esquire Daniel H. Wells stepped between us and succeeded in separating us. . . . I rode down to Alderman Whitney . . . [H]e imposed a fine which I paid, and then returned to the political meeting.'
(ibid., p. 524)
"On August 13, 1843, Joseph Smith admitted that he had tried to choke Walter Bagby: 'I met him, and he gave me some abusive language, taking up a stone to throw at me: I seized him by the throat to choke him off.'
(ibid., p. 531)
"After he became president of the Mormon Church, Brigham Young commented, 'If you had the Prophet Joseph to deal with, you would think that I am quite mild. . . . He would not bear the usage I have borne, and would appear as though he would tear down all the houses in the city, and tear up trees by the roots, if men conducted to him in the way they have to me.'
("Journal of Discourses," vol. 8, pp. 317-318)
"In addition to choking, kicking people out of houses and churches, knocking them in the head, boxing their ears, and tearing their clothing, the evidence indicates that he threatened people's lives."
(For documentation see, 'The Mormon Hierarchy,' pp. 91-92).
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--Holy Hallucinations and Hereditary Epilepsy--
"The idea that Joseph Smith was mentally ill has been around for a long time. In discussing theories about the origin of the Book of Mormon, Francis W. Kirkham, a Mormon writer, mentioned one of the anti-Mormon theories: 'The Book of Mormon was written by Joseph Smith, a person subject to epileptic fits in early life and later to other pathological mental conditions.'
(Kirkham, "A New Witness For Christ in America," 1951, vol. 1, p. 350). . .
"Dr. Kirkham . . . [then cites] the following from the [1902] book, The Founder of Mormonism, written by Isaac Woodbridge Riley . . .:
"'Thurlow Weed, when first Joseph submitted to him the Book of Mormon, said that he was either crazy or a very shallow impostor. There is no call for so harsh a judgment . . . There is a truer and, at the same time, more charitable explanation -- it is, in a word, that Joseph Smith, Junior, was an epileptic.'
". . . [I]t does seem that there was something seriously amiss in [Smith's] life.
"It is interesting to note that Joseph Smith's grandfather, Solomon Mack, seemed to suffer from fits. He even wrote a book detailing some of his fits, 'severe accidents,' and unusual visions he received. In his book, 'A Narrative of the Life of Solomon Mack,' Joseph Smith's grandfather wrote:
"'I afterwards was taken with a fit, when traveling with an axe under my arm . . . I was senseless from one until five p.m. When I came to myself . . . I was all covered with blood and much cut and bruised. When I came to my senses I could not tell where I had been nor where I was going. But by good luck I went right and arrived at the first house . . . .'
(as cited in Joseph Smith's "New England Heritage," by Richard L. Anderson, 1971, p. 43)
"Although Dr. Anderson mentions that, '[t]here were also "some fits" among his later disorders," he rejects the idea that he was 'afflicted with hereditary epilepsy, which too neatly explains his grandson's visions as epileptic seizures, with flashing lights and lapses into unconsciousness. But the case of neither grandfather nor grandson fits such speculation.'
(ibid., p. 13)
"In a footnote on p. 166, Anderson says that '[i]t is even possible that Solomon used 'fit' in the early sense of 'a mortal crisis, a bodily state (whether painful or not) that betokens death.'
"Nevertheless, Solomon Mack described so many accidents in his book that it would make one wonder if there was something seriously wrong with the man.
"In any case, in the official account of Joseph Smith's First Vision he wrote:
"'. . . I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.'"
("Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith -- History," v. 15)
"Joseph Smith described the remarkable vision he saw and then went on to say: 'When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up to heaven. When the light had departed, I had no strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went home.'
(ibid., v. 20)
"While Joseph Smith claimed that he saw an actual vision, there is a similarity to his grandfather's experience in that both of them were overpowered and passed out. Interestingly, both Joseph and his grandfather used the expression, 'When I came to myself'
(compare v. 20 with Solomon Mack's account cited above).
"Another account of the [First] [V]ision appears in Joseph Smith's 1835 dairy. This account contains some eerie material about a strange noise Joseph heard that was not published in the official version:
"'My tongue seemed to be swol[l]en in my mouth, so that I could not utter. I heard a noise behind me like some person walking towards me. I strove again to pray but could not. The noise seemed to draw nearer. I sprung up on my feet {page 23} and looked around, but saw no person or thing that was calculated to produce the noise of walking.'
("An American Prophet's Record: The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith," edited by Scott H. Faulring, 1987, p. 51)
"It is interesting to note that some of those who suffer from epilepsy claim they hear "peculiar sounds" just prior to an attack
(see 'The American Medical Association Family Medical Guide,' 1987, p. 289).
"Whatever the case may be, the fact that Joseph Smith claimed he heard the sound of "some person walking towards" him whom he was unable to see is certainly weird.
"Some critics of the LDS Church claim that the spooky elements of the [First] [V]ision, such as Joseph Smith being 'seized upon by some power which entirely overcame" him, the "thick darkness,' and the attempt to 'bind' his tongue prove that the vision was demonic. Mormons, on the other hand, maintain that God thwarted an attack by Satan and gave Joseph a wonderful vision.
"Foster . . . gives another alternative: Joseph Smith may have suffered from an hallucination.
"Joseph's First Vision experience was not the only time that he passed out. Later, Joseph Smith claimed he was visited in the night three times by an angel who told him about the gold plates. Joseph wrote:
"'I shortly after arose from my bed, and, as usual, went to the necessary labors of that day; but, in attempting to work as at other times, I found my strength so exhausted as to render me entirely unable. My father, who was laboring along with me, discovered something to be wrong with me, and told me to go home. I started with the intention of going to the house; but, in attempting to cross the fence out of the field where we were, my strength entirely failed me, and I fell helpless on the ground, and for a long time was quite unconscious of anything.
"'The first thing that I can recollect was a voice speaking unto me, calling me by name. I looked up, and beheld the same messenger . . .'
("Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith -- History," v. 48-49)
"It is also interesting to note that both Solomon Mack and Joseph Smith claimed they prayed for God's forgiveness. Both maintained that they had a spiritual experience in which they saw a bright light in their house on more than one occasion.
"Mack wrote:
"'I was distressed to think how I had abused the Sabbath and had not taken warning from my wife. About midnight I saw a light about a foot from my face as bright as fire; the doors were all shut and no one stirring in the house. I thought by this that I had but a few moments to live, and oh what distress I was in. I prayed that the Lord would have mercy on my soul and deliver me from this horrible pit of sin. . . . I was in distress.
"'Another night soon after, I saw another light as bright as the first, at a small distance from my face, and I thought I had but a few moments to live.'
(as cited in "Joseph Smith's New England Heritage," p. 54)
"Joseph Smith wrote that after he had his First Vision, he was severely tempted:
"'. . . I was left to all kinds of temptations; and mingled with all kinds of society, I frequently fell into many foolish errors, and displayed the weakness of youth, and the foibles of human nature; which, I am sorry to say, led me into divers temptations, offensive in the sight of God. . . . on the evening of the above-mentioned twenty-first of September, after I had retired to my bed for the night, I betook myself to prayer and supplication to Almighty God for forgiveness of all my sins and follies . . .
"'While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside . . . The room was exceedingly light . . . He called me by name . . . He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates . . .
"'After this communication, I saw the light in the room begin to gather immediately around . . . the room was left as it had been before the heavenly light had made its appearance.
"'I lay musing on the singularity of the scene . . . when in the midst of my meditation, suddenly discovered that my room was again beginning to get lighted, as it were, the same heavenly messenger was again by my bedside.'
("Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith -- History," v. 28-30, 32-34, 43-44)
"Joseph Smith, of course, also asserted that when he had his [F]irst [V]ision he 'saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun . . . .'
("Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith -- History," v. 17) . . .
"[If Foster is correct in his hypothesis regarding manic depression], the fact that Joseph Smith wrote, 'When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven' (v. 20) could be significant.
"As he was lying there on the ground the rays of the sun may have seemed like a blinding light shining in his eyes. Since Smith claimed the vision occurred in the woods early in the spring, and that he was 'looking up into heaven,' it is certainly possible that the sun shining down through the branches could have given him the impression he was having a vision.
"In addition to these parallels, both Smith and his grandfather had an experience in which they believed they were addressed by God or Christ. Solomon Mack wrote: ' . . . I was called by my Christian name . . .' (pp. 54-55) Smith also stated: 'One of them spake unto me, calling me by name . . . .' (v. 17)"
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--When It Comes to All Those Contradictions, What a Haywired Brain Could Explain--
"If Joseph Smith experienced hallucinations, . . . it would go a long way towards explaining why his story of the First Vision contains so many glaring contradictions. In the first account, which he wrote in 1832, he said there was only one personage present in the vision: the Lord Jesus Christ.
(see "An American Prophet's Record: The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith," pp. 5-6)
"In the version written in 1835, Smith maintained that there were two persons whom he did not identify. In addition, however, he also said that he 'saw many angels in this vision . . .' (ibid., p. 51) Finally, in the official account published in 1842, Smith claimed that he saw both God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ! This account omits the presence of angels in the vision.
"Besides a number of other contradictions, Smith claimed that the vision occurred at the time of a revival in the Palmyra-Manchester area. In his official account he claimed that the First Vision took place 'early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty.'
"Wesley P. Walters, however, demonstrated conclusively that there was no such revival in the Palmyra-Manchester area. In fact, Walters found hard evidence that the revival did not occur until the fall of 1824. . . .
"If Joseph Smith suffered from seizures and hallucinations, it would make it easier to understand why he could not tell a consistent story about the First Vision. As we have shown above, in Joseph's official account of the vision he said he felt that he was 'doomed to destruction.' He also revealed that he 'was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction . . . .'
"In his book, 'Hearts Made Glad: The Charges of Intemperance Against Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet,' LaMar Petersen wrote the following:
"'Joseph's associates sometimes spoke of his paleness when "in vision" or when receiving a revelation. A daughter of Adaline Knight Belnap recorded her mother's impression of the Prophet in an instance of spiritual (spirituous?) passivity. "How well she remembers one day before her father died (Vinson Knight) of a little excitement in school. The children were busy when the school room door was carefully opened and two gentlemen entered, carrying the limp form of Joseph Smith. The children all sprang to their feet, for Brother Joseph lay helpless in their arms, his head resting on his brother's shoulder, his face pale as death, but his eyes were open, though he seemed not to see things earthly. The teacher quieted them by telling them that Brother Joseph was in a revelation, and they were carrying him to his office above the schoolroom."'
(Peterson, "Hearts Made Glad," 1975, p. 206)
"While there is no question that Joseph Smith and other early Mormon leaders did use alcoholic beverages . . . , this strange incident could be viewed as evidence supporting Foster's hypothesis of manic depression."
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--Mental Problems from Head to Toe: Infected Leg to Infected Mind--
". . . [I}t is certainly possible that traumatic events he experienced could have had a serious effect upon him. For example, when he was just a young boy, he had an extremely bad infection in his leg. According to his mother, it finally came to the point that the doctors were convinced that 'amputation is absolutely necessary in order to save his life.' His mother, however, requested the doctors make 'one more effort' to save the leg.
"Joseph's mother went on to state that he refused to take any brandy or wine before the operation. Consequently, he had nothing to kill the pain. According to Mrs. Smith, the operation was horrific. The surgeons had to bore 'into the bone of his leg, first on one side of the bone where it was affected, and then on the other side, after which they broke it off with a pair of forceps or pincers. They thus took away large pieces of the bone. When they broke off the first piece, Joseph screamed out so loudly, that I could not forbear running to him. . . .
"'When the third piece was taken away, I burst into the room again -- and oh, my God! what a spectacle for a mother's eye! The wound torn open, the blood still gushing from it, and the bed literally covered with blood. Joseph was as pale as a corpse . . . .'
("Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith The Prophet, and his Progenitors for Many Generations," by Lucy Smith, 1853, pp. 63-65)
"Although Joseph Smith dictated his recollection of the operation for his 'History of the Church,' it was never included in the published 'History.' . . .
"Joseph Smith claimed that the illness came upon him when he 'was five years old or thereabouts' and said that he 'endured the most acute suffering for a long time . . .'
"When amputation was suggested he responded: ' . . . /'A]s young as I was, I utterly refused to give my assent to the operation, but consented to their trying an experiment by removing a large portion of the bone . . . .'
"Smith went on to claim that he suffered persecution at this early period of his life, which, of course, was years before he had his First Vision:
"'. . . I was reduced so very low that my mother could carry me with ease.
"'After I began to get about I went on crutches till I started for the State of New York where my father had gone for the purpose of preparing a place for the removal of his family, which he affected by sending a man after us by the name of Caleb Howard . . . . We fell in with a family by the name of Gates who were travelling west, and Howard drove me from the waggon and made me travel in my weak state through the snow 40 miles per day for several days, during which time I suffered the most excruciating weariness and pain, and all this that Mr. Howard might enjoy the society of two of Mr. Gates daughters which he took on the wagon where I should have rode, and thus he continued to do, day after day through the Journey and when my brothers remonstrated with Mr. Howard for his treatment to me, he would knock them down with the butt of his whipp. -- When we arrived at Utica, N. York Howard threw the goods out of the wagon into the street and attempted to run away with the Horses and waggon, but my mother seized the horses by the rein . . . . On the way from Utica, I was left to ride on the last sleigh . . . . I was knocked down by the driver, one of Gate's Sons, and left to wallow in my blood until a stranger came along, picked me up, and carried me to the Town of Palmyra.'
(Joseph Smith, "History," Book A-1, pp. 131-132, LDS Church Historian's Office, ibid., p. 480)
"In her book, 'Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith,' p. 69, Mrs. Smith did mention the trouble she had with Mr. Howard and also stated that he mistreated 'my children, especially Joseph. He would compel him to travel miles at a time on foot, notwithstanding he was still lame.'
"Interestingly, however, she says nothing about her son's incredible claim that he walked in his 'weak state through the snow 40 miles per day for several days . . . .' Moreover, Mrs. Smith is silent with regard to the fact that Joseph claimed he was 'knocked down by the driver . . . and left to wallow in my blood until a stranger came along, picked me up, and carried me to the Town of Palmyra.'
"The question might be raised as to whether Joseph Smith was exaggerating or hallucinating. On the other hand, although it is difficult to believe, his mother may have forgotten the incident.
"It does not seem possible that Joseph Smith, who was "still lame" from the operation, could have walked "40 miles per day for several days" in the condition he was in after his operation. Mormon writers state that the operation was so severe that Joseph Smith walked with a slight limp for the rest of his life.
"Joseph Smith's statement that he 'was five years old or thereabouts' when he had the operation is incorrect; he was actually just over seven years old at the time. Mormon writer LeRoy S. Wirthlin shows that Joseph's mother places the date in '1813' and notes that Joseph's claim of being 'about "5 years old or thereabouts" . . . would not have placed the family in Lebanon' at the time of the epidemic
(see "Brigham Young University Studies," Spring 1981, p. 146).
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--Mentally Mad and Persecutionally Paranoid--
". . . Lucy Smith . . . claim[ed] that one evening when Joseph 'was passing through the door yard, a gun was fired across his pathway, with the evident intention of shooting him. He sprang to the door much frightened. We immediately went in search of the assassin . . . The next morning we found his tracks under a wagon, where he lay when he fired . . . We have not as yet discovered the man who made this attempt to murder, neither can we discover the cause thereof.'
("Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith," p. 73)
"While one might think that this had something to do with Joseph Smith's work on Mormonism, Mrs. Smith made it clear that this was before his First Vision.
"Besides these experiences, in 1832, Joseph Smith was actually tarred and feathered by an angry mob. Fawn Brodie stated that the mob, 'dragged Joseph . . . They stripped him, scratched and beat him with savage pleasure, and smeared his bleeding body with tar from head to foot. . . . they plastered him with feathers. It is said that Eli Johnson demanded that the prophet be castrated, for he suspected Joseph of being too intimate with his sister, Nancy Marinda. But the doctor who had been persuaded to join the mob declined . . .'
(Fawn Brodie, "No Man Knows My History," 1971, p. 119)
"Interestingly, Nancy Marinda Johnson later became one of Joseph's plural wives.
At any rate, it seems possible that the combination of the horrendous operation and the cruel mobbing could have resulted in Smith having some serious problems. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, for example, is caused by very shocking experiences. 'The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,' Fourth Edition, p. 424, gives this information:
"'The essential feature of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is the development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to an extreme traumatic stressor involving direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury . . . Traumatic events that are experienced directly include . . . violent personal assault . . .'
"It is obvious that the mobbing of Joseph Smith was a 'violent personal assault' upon him that could have affected his mental state. If he was prone to manic-depression, as Foster seems to believe, it could have had a devastating effect on his conduct. . . ."
_____
--As Bright as the Noonday Sun: Joseph Smith was a Certifiable Kook Case--
In the interest of historical fairness (and we all know just how FAIR Mormon apologists can be), ". . . FARMS-BYU scholars . . . should . . . inform their readers that . . . Joseph Smith . . . may have been mentally ill."
"May"?
Just like the world "may" be round.
(Jerald and Sandra Tanner, "Salt Lake City Messenger," May 1996, Utah Lighthouse Ministry, under "Topical Index S-Z," at:
http://www.utlm.org/topicalindexc.htm ; click on "#90 Messenger, 'Joseph Mentally Ill?'")
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2011 07:53PM by steve benson.