A Disease Touching the Brain: Lovesickness in Western History and Literature - Annalese Duprey-Henry

Annalese Duprey-Henry
Doctoral Student, English Department
Graduate Affiliate, MH&B Program
Northwestern University

A Disease Touching the Brain: Lovesickness in Western History and Literature

In the second century CE, lovesickness entered into the realm of medicine in the writings of Galen. Western medicine considered disordered love a mental illness from antiquity through to the Renaissance, although the malady has since fallen from favor. This talk will introduce the disease, especially in its medieval iteration, and consider the ways in which medicine and literature can be mutually dependent and informative. Lovesickness’s rise and fall asks us to consider diseases not as independent facts but as culturally contingent experiences with societal and diagnostic ramifications.

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