Coleridge's "The Madman and the Lethargist" and psychiatric disorder.

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.

CONCLUSION

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.