Frontiers of neurology and neuroscience
2018
Elisabete Castelon Konkiewitz, Edward Benjamin Ziff
In this essay, we propose an association between Franz Kafka's novel, The Trial, and phenomenological and neurobiological processes in schizophrenia. We begin by presenting a summary of the plot, pointing to some of its remarkable literary aspects. We next compare the mental processes of dissociation, disorientation and delusion as represented in the novel with phenomenological processes that...
Frontiers of neurology and neuroscience
March 5, 2013
Sebastian Dieguez
The topic of the double is a hallmark of romantic, gothic, and fantastic literature. In the guise of the second self, the alter ego or the doppelgänger, fictional doubles have long fascinated critics, clinicians, and scientists. We review classical approaches to the theme and propose a broad clinical and neurocognitive framework from which to examine major instances of the motif in literature....
Frontiers of neurology and neuroscience
2013
Sebastian Dieguez
Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) is well known for his penetrating observations and descriptions of the burgeoning social life and emerging modernity of 19th century France. This chapter focuses on the novel Louis Lambert, first published in 1832. It is argued that its main character provides the first complete and convincing description of schizophrenia - 69 years before Kraepelin fully developed...
Frontiers of neurology and neuroscience
2010
Sebastian Dieguez
Ernest Hemingway is one of the most popular and widely acclaimed American writers of the 20th century. His works and life epitomize the image of the hyper-masculine hero, facing the cruelties of life with 'grace under pressure'. Most of his writings have a quasi-autobiographical quality, which allowed many commentators to draw comparisons between his personality and his art. Here, we examine...
Frontiers of neurology and neuroscience
2007
Christian Baumann, Franziska Lentzsch, Marianne Regard et al.
Der Nachtmahr (The Nightmare) was painted 1781 by the Swiss-born artist Heinrich Füssli (1741-1825). Neurologists, sleep medicine specialists and sleep researchers are familiar with this popular work, which became a symbol for the phenomenon of sleep paralysis. Notably, Füssli created this work decades before the first scientific description of the syndrome. Therefore, the following chapter...
Frontiers of neurology and neuroscience
2007
Olaf Blanke
Human bodily experience is characterized by the immediate feeling that our body is localized at a certain position in space and that the self is localized within these body borders (embodiment). Recent research from cognitive neuroscience and neurology suggests that embodiment is of major importance for neuroscientific models of self and self-consciousness. This is suggested by illusory own...