Marcel Proust's fictional diseases and doctors.

Marcel Proust's fictional diseases and doctors. Front Neurol Neurosci. 2013;31:245-54 Authors: Bogousslavsky J Abstract Marcel Proust (1875-1922), the son and brother of famous physicians, had close and continuous contact with medicine and doctors in connection with chronic asthma, neurasthenia, medical 'tourism', and self-medication. This proximity to medical issues is obvious in his work, particularly his novel In Search of Lost Time, which today is still considered one of the most important literary works ever. In this novel, medicine, patients, and doctors are everywhere, and it can be claimed that while it is often considered to be the great novel of memory, medicine in itself also can be seen as a true character of the story, in which Proust displays surprisingly extensive knowledge. Neurasthenia and asthma (i.e. Proust's diseases), as well as specific neurological disorders, such as stroke, migraine, epilepsy, and dementia, appear in the novel. The disease of the narrator's grandmother remains a piece of anthology, and probably remains the best literary report of a progressive stroke leading to death. Proust also quoted neurological conditions which were virtually unreported in his time, such as phantom limb syndrome and poststroke depression associated with aphasia in Baron Charlus. Doctors are nearly systematically depicted as incompetent and superficial, characteristics which appear to increase with academic titles and glor...
Source: Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Tags: Front Neurol Neurosci Source Type: research