Memoirs of My Nervous Illness

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02/11/2022 Dramatic work due to the incomprehension of its object of study or motif, dramatically underestimated, and, if it were to investigate in depth, it would discover that it was also ignored (I am referring to written memories) due to the counter-intuitive and para-scientific premises to which it alludes. the conspicuous judge Daniel Schreber whose nineteenth-century memories are rescued and who swore to understand God through the language of the rays of light through which many souls manifested themselves -although in an imperceptible way for the common denominator of the people-. From the beginning, Judge Schreber's treatment was strange, if you like to call it that, (after all, there is something experimental in medicating a patient with 4 daily doses of opium who, as a result of hearing nocturnal voices and seeing his own name in the obituaries of the morning newspaper, he voluntarily enters the hospital to study his nerve disease, did you notice that I did not say neurosis?, because although it already existed for more than a century thanks to William Cullen, there were still a few decades before Charcot and later Freud called a psychogenic illness neurosis. Schreber was not only sure that he understood the rays of communication with God originating in souls such as birds and birds, but also from the stars (Casiopea, for example) but also, he assured his wife " asylums are God´s nerves institutes"". I can think of a couple of disturbing scenes like the one where Schreber lies wrapped in the sheets and sucks his thumb with a legitimate expression entyre angst and emptiness, or the other one where he shows his chest to Professor Flechsig, and tells him that it has the same form and function as his mother's and, with a look of perplexity, takes the opportunity to photograph his patient to "exhibit" the way in which Schreber completely forgot its own gender. In the end, when the judge calls Flechsig to tell him that his work is complete (showing his notes during his stay in the asylum), the director of the Asylum tells him that "his" work with him is not finished. But if the whole dilemma about the risks of authorizing or not, accepting or not, his real or feigned consciousness perceiving supernatural languages, the legal process to prove his lucidity, and Flechsig's subsequent bewilderment when he ran into Schreber dressed as a woman in a square public, one could not think of a less disconcerting end for such a peculiar experiential story as that of Daniel Schraber. See more 06/11/2007 Not as weird as it could've (should've?) been, given it's subject matter, but still worth it if you like Freudian dramas. Tight and well-paced. See more Read all reviews

Memoirs of My Nervous Illness

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