One of the oldest cases of schizophrenia in Gogol's Diary of a Madman

摘要

Besides intrinsic historical and literary interest and clinical usefulness by providing good exemplar cases, the study of the history of a disease can provide clues to its pathogenesis-it is necessary, but not sufficient, that the cause of a disease be at least as old as the disease itself. Here I note one of the oldest and most complete descriptions of schizophrenia, in Nicolai Gogol's classic short story Diary of a Madman (1834).