London Dreaming - Midnight Ramblers

MIDNIGHT RAMBLERS Sleepwalking, Violence and Desire with Dr William MacLehose Saturday 4th May 2019 at 1:00 pm Even today, somnambulism presents mysteries which are not fully explained by modern science. How and why do people do things while they sleep? Are these actions connected to the sleeper’s dreams? In previous centuries, people were equally fascinated by sleepwalking and developed different theories to explain the bizarre behaviour they witnessed. In this talk, historian Bill MacLehose looks at medieval understandings of somnambulism, which was a much broader category than just walking about in one’s sleep. He will explore the different activities sleepwalkers were thought to perform—fighting, hunting, debating, wandering—and the psychological explanations that were created to make sense of these moments of uncontrollable activity in sleep. Tickets £12 including a Hendrick's Gin Cocktail. Please click here to buy. Dr William MacLehose Bill MacLehose is a historian of medieval medicine and religion, and is Lecturer in History and Philosophy of Science at UCL. He is the author of A Tender Age: Cultural Anxieties over the Child in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Century and co-editor of Imagining the Brain: Episodes in the History of Brain Research. He is currently working on a study of medieval views of sleep and its pathologies.

MIDNIGHT RAMBLERS
Sleepwalking, Violence and Desire with Dr William MacLehose
Saturday 4th May 2019 at 1:00 pm

Even today, somnambulism presents mysteries which are not fully explained by modern science. How and why do people do things while they sleep? Are these actions connected to the sleeper’s dreams? In previous centuries, people were equally fascinated by sleepwalking and developed different theories to explain the bizarre behaviour they witnessed.

In this talk, historian Bill MacLehose looks at medieval understandings of somnambulism, which was a much broader category than just walking about in one’s sleep. He will explore the different activities sleepwalkers were thought to perform—fighting, hunting, debating, wandering—and the psychological explanations that were created to make sense of these moments of uncontrollable activity in sleep.

Tickets £12 including a Hendrick's Gin Cocktail. Please click here to buy.

Dr William MacLehose
Bill MacLehose is a historian of medieval medicine and religion, and is Lecturer in History and Philosophy of Science at UCL. He is the author of A Tender Age: Cultural Anxieties over the Child in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Century and co-editor of Imagining the Brain: Episodes in the History of Brain Research. He is currently working on a study of medieval views of sleep and its pathologies.

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