In early modern Scotland, several visionaries experienced vivid relationships with spirits. This paper analyses their experiences historically, with the aid of modern scholarship in medicine, psychology and social science. Most of the visionaries were women. Most of their spirit-guides were fairies or ghosts. There could be traumas in forming or maintaining the relationship, and visionaries often experienced spirit-guides as powerful, capricious and demanding. It is argued that some visionaries experienced psychotic conditions, including psychosomatic injuries, sleepwalking, mutism and catatonia. Further conditions related to visionary experience were not necessarily pathological, notably fantasy-proneness and hallucinations. Imaginary companions and parasocial relationships are discussed, as are normality, abnormality and coping strategies. There are concluding reflections on links between culture and biology.

中文翻译：

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远离仙女：早期现代苏格兰有远见的遭遇的精神病理学

在现代早期的苏格兰，几位有远见的人经历了与精神的生动关系。本文借助医学、心理学和社会科学领域的现代学术，从历史角度分析了他们的经历。大多数有远见的人都是女性。他们的大部分精神导师都是仙女或鬼魂。建立或维持这种关系可能会受到创伤，而有远见的人经常会经历强大、反复无常和要求苛刻的精神指导。有人认为，一些有远见的人经历过精神病，包括心身损伤、梦游、缄默和紧张症。与幻觉体验相关的其他条件不一定是病态的，尤其是幻想倾向和幻觉。讨论了想象中的同伴和准社会关系，以及正常、异常和应对策略。