[Hölderlin: review of pathographic analysis]

The life and work of Hölderlin confront the psychiatrist with the age-old problem of the relationship between artistic creation and mental illness. This theme has inspired multitud of writings, many of which fail to stand up to serious analysis. Although in the last century interest centred on the literary value of his work, more recently various authors have approached his life and work from a psychopathological standpoint, generally choosing one of two perspectives. The first tries to find the schizophrenic aspects of his poetry, and how it changed after the illness appeared. The other tries to find biographical clues which could throw some light on the development of his psychosis or, at least, on his reactions to its progression. The following study review several works which focus on the poet's illness, by authors ranging from Jaspers to Jung, Laplanche, Peters and others.