The main difference I see with believe unusual behavior as a disease and unusual behavior as a product of possession is the fact that prayer can “cure” unusual behavior as possession. In “A True and Most Dreadfull Discourse of a Woman Possessed by the Devill” the point that early medical cures relied on prayer rather than the work of a doctor. “… Yet the Devil who always both builds his Chapel so near as he may to God’s Church, began to withdraw from Prayer…” it is written, denoting the work of the possessor overcoming the woman’s prayer. Had she acted like she did today I am much surer a doctor would have had her committed to a psych ward.

I believe we do treat Eve different than we would Margaret Cooper, or any other person who is diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. Back when this Discourse was written we did not have the medical knowledge we have now, so there was no way for them to realize what Eve was suffering from at the time. Rabies, which characteristically makes people foam at the mouth and experience delusions, but would have been impossible for the townspeople to treat, but it doesn’t explain how the other seven people in the house saw the same bear Eve did. Eve is treated from a religious standpoint, which would include multiple prayers, no counseling, and many physical attempts to force the spirit from her body; whereas Cooper would find a world of counseling, support, and psychotherapeutic drugs to help her in her fight.

Cooper and Eve are not held accountable in different ways because that would imply there was a way to stop it without treatment. It would be a problem they could turn on and off at will. While I do not believe in the theory of possession by evil demons, considering the beliefs of those times I would have to argue there was little a person who was possessed or psychologically ill could be held accountable for doing. Often, people with multiple personalities are not aware they have changed personalities and part of them “blacks out.” To hold them accountable while in this state would be worthless, as they would remember none of it when they came back to their regular personality.

Not having seen The Three Faces of Eve, I feel it would be inappropriate and also ill-advised for me to comment on what Ian Hacking would say about it. At first glance, it would appear Hacking would accept a model such as the one given in “A True and Most Dreadfull Discourse,” but upon further investigation one finds that while he mentions the soul, he neither credits nor discredits the theory of possession. In my mind, Hacking would advocate an early childhood shock as the cause rather than true psychological illness. “A disturbed type of behavior has been joined to events in early childhood that may surface in memory,” he wrote, explaining how childhood events can cause unexpected behavior in a person’s adult years. The theory of possession does not fit that definition, as a demon can possess you at any point in your lifetime.