title: Coleridge's "The Madman and the Lethargist" and psychiatric disorder.
abstract: 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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors: Discipline of Psychiatry, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. S.Pridmore@utas.edu.au
authors: Saxby
authors: S
authors: Pridmore
mesh_terms: D004739:England; D005197:Famous Persons; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006801:Humans; D008513:Medicine in Literature; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000266:history*; D011037:Poetry as Topic / Q000266:history*