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Coleridge's "The Madman and the Lethargist" and psychiatric disorder
1Discipline of Psychiatry, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. S.Pridmore@utas.edu.au
Objective:
The aim of this study was to examine "The Madman and the Lethargist", by Samuel Coleridge, with respect to its contribution to the history of psychiatric disorders.
Conclusion:
While primarily a political allegory, this poem indicates that to the non-medical Briton (Coleridge, albeit an educated one) of the late 18th century, a distinction was not necessarily made between mad and non-mad sick people. Also, that even dangerous mad people were considered potentially curable.
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