Maupassant and Medicine (2015)

Undergraduate: Elizabeth Straub

Faculty Advisor: Dorothea Heitsch
Department: Biology

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This thesis will investigate how several short stories written by the French nineteenth century author Guy de Maupassant both reflect his progressing neurological and psychiatric symptoms and intersect with the contemporary medical knowledge within the burgeoning field of psychiatry. Maupassant expresses his opinions on hysteria and hypnotism, a diagnosis and treatment, respectively, popularized by Dr. Jean Martin Charcot, through several of his writings and notably in ¿¿¿Conte de No¿¿l.¿¿¿ Maupassant further explores his experiences with hallucinations throughout his writing career at the same time as nineteenth-century French psychiatrists were characterizing hallucinations. Finally, Maupassant examines the descent into madness and its relationship with suicide in several other stories, at the same time that outdated conceptions of insanity and modern diagnoses of depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder were evolving. These analyses will demonstrate that Maupassant, through both his literary ability and his intimate knowledge of psychological and neurological disorders, provides a unique insight into French medical attitudes of the nineteenth-century.