Jack Ford: Jacob's Family as a Symbol of Affectivity in Cistercian and Victorine Psychology
Thispaperarguesthat Cistercianand Victorinepsychologicaltreatisesutilisedmnemotechnical symbols and strategies to convey "affectivity": emotional states and practices directed at God. By exploring how the same biblical symbol-that of Jacob, his wives and family-is utilised mnemotechnically both in Isaac of Stella's Sermo IV in festo Omnium Sanctorum (Sermon Four for the Feast of All Saints) and Richard of Saint-Victor's De duodecim patriarchis (The Twelve Patriarchs) as a framework for emotional training, I argue that twelfth-century attitudes towards gender roles, the household, and the family were drawn on to communicate affectivity in an effective way to monastic audiences. In doing so, this paper suggests that medieval affectivity must be sub-divided further into two dimensions-the horizontal and the vertical-to understand the dual role of the emotional faculty of the soul, the affectus, in first cleansing the soul's thoughts and affections and, secondly, facilitating the practice of contemplation.
Keywords: Affectivity - affectus - affectio - psychology - symbol