APATIA (ἈΠΑ͂ΣΑ)

**APATHY** (ἀπᾶσα). — Etymologically, it signifies the "absence of passions" and the imperturbability of the soul.

I. Eastern Asceticism

The term *a.* is used in a moral and ascetic sense by the Easterners to denote one of the highest degrees of spirituality. It is then classical to find various concepts of *a.* and different spiritual systems based upon it in the ascetical-mystical authors of the East up to the appearance of Hesychasm. The term is originally proper to the Stoics, who, considering all passions (πᾶσῃ) morally evil, prescribed their elimination, which alone permitted the imitation of the divine life. In this sense, some Greek Fathers, e.g., the Nazianzen (Ep. to Philippum and Orat., XXVI: PG 37, 65-78; 35, 1239-44), went somewhat further, but before them some Alexandrians, led by Clement, fell into manifest errors by making *a.* the unattainable ideal of Christian gnosis (cf. Strom., VI-VII: PG 9, 207-558). The Eastern system of *a.* suffered the influence of the doctrine of Philo and Plotinus. With the development of monasticism, *a.* enters a new phase and is presented as the result of continuous prayer and vigilant custody of the senses (cf. Hist. Laus., passim, e.g., in the Prolegomena of Palladius: PG 34, 1005-1006), but it did not yet free itself from a certain dangerous rigidity and impassivity, a legacy of the Stoics, which rendered the exercise of virtue imprudent and inhuman (cf. ibid., chaps. VIII, LXXXV, CXXXVII, etc.). After Evagrius Ponticus, the author who perhaps exercised the greatest influence on the spiritual doctrine of the East, the concept and practice of *a.* were more carefully defined. It is a state of happiness, attained through practice (the exercise of virtue) and the victory over passions; intimately connected with prayer as a prerequisite, not unmindful of mortification, for in this life passions are never entirely destroyed. From *a.* springs charity, which opens the door to contemplation. Among the various fruits of it, and as an indication of having attained it, Evagrius enumerates prayer without any distraction, imperturbability even in the phantasms of sleep, and the full freedom of the spirit. This wise doctrine (which St. John Climacus already placed in the 20th-30th degrees of his *Ladder*, as the apex of perfection) was then given full weight and authority by St. Maximus the Confessor, with whom it became consolidated in Eastern asceticism.

2. PASTORAL MEDICINE

From the medical and psychiatric point of view, *a.* constitutes, in an extreme degree, a pathological symptom of various affections ranging from cerebral anemia to brain tumors, from intoxications, whether endogenous (uremia) or exogenous (stupefactions), to advanced stages of dementia praecox. A state of *a.* which may be defined, up to a certain point, as physiological is that which manifests itself in advanced old age. In a mild degree, it may be an indication of a sluggish and feeble character. In pathological *a.*, any affective feeling, emotion, or aspiration is suppressed. The patient remains indifferent to any news or spectacle concerning persons dear to him or even himself; even painful stimuli leave him indifferent, without provoking in him any reflex or reaction.