From Literature to History: When madness becomes social deviation

Abstract

This article analyzes two literary texts, located between the last third of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, to examine how mental health and illness are depicted; the medical profession, the sick and the doctor-patient relationship; establishing links with the scientific knowledge of the time. Thus, we highlight the potential of fiction to reflect socio-historical and cultural aspects, encouraging reading a part of the history of psychiatry. This is an analysis where the "crossover" of knowledge from disciplines such as history, medicine, anthropology and literature, becomes a tool to account for the way different epoques and their diseases are linked.