The work analyses the complex relationship between mental illnesses and curative medicine in the writings of E.T.A. Hoffmann, highlighting problems deriving from unsuitable practices, and shedding light on the overwhelming, asymmetric relationship between doctor/patient, man/woman. The work analyses the doubling phenomena arising from the diaries, which Hoffmann overcame determined not to fall into madness; moreover, the author highlights Hofmmann’s qualities as a man and a scholar, attentive to the limits of therapies, questioning doctors without understanding. The author summarises Hoffmann's ideas on the libertarian approach to illness, which includes the acceptance of the patient in their whole being, and presents his idea of therapy consisting of interpersonal dialogue and of listening to a story which reflects a similar case. The author also suggests the novelty of the “talking cure” method ante litteram, which was then successfully adopted by psychoanalysis: a method full of ideas, fruitful for literature, from Poe to Schnitzler, and for cinema, from Hitchcock to Kubrick.
Book Title
Un poetico sonnambulismo e una folle passione per la follia
Book Subtitle
La romantizzazione della medicina nell’opera di E.T.A. Hoffmann
Authors
Sieglinde Cora
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
210
Publication Year
2013
Copyright Information
© 2013 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/978-88-6655-473-8
ISBN Print
978-88-6655-507-0
eISBN (pdf)
978-88-6655-473-8
eISBN (xml)
978-88-9273-478-4
Series Title
Premio Ricerca «Città di Firenze»
Series ISSN
2705-0289
Series E-ISSN
2705-0297