Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) is remembered today for his contributions to literature and aesthetic theory — it is less well known that his first career was in medicine (an army appointment). Scholars have generally held that his primary interest lay in psychology and the psychological aspects of medicine, and that his commitment to other aspects of medicine was perfunctory at best. The present paper argues that a study of Schiller's three medical dissertations — two on psychological aspects of medicine and one on fevers — reveals his attempt “to maintain a balance” between the mind and the body in his approach to medicine.
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References
1.
DewhurstKReevesN. Friedrich Schiller: Medicine, Psychology and Literature. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1978. This volume remains the only significant study in English of Schiller's medical training and its relation to his literary work. The book includes biographical information, translations of Schiller's complete medical and psychological writings, and an assessment of the intellectual legacy of these writings in Schiller's other works. The overall assessment of Dewhurst and Reeves is that this intellectual legacy is predominantly psychological.
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SharpeL. Der Verbrecher aus verlorener Ehre: an early exercise in Schillerian psychology. German Life and Letters1980;33:102–10.
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Biographical information throughout this paper is taken from DewhurstKReevesN (op. cit. ref. 1): pp. 9–77, except where otherwise indicated.
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SharpeL. Friedrich Schiller: Drama, Thought and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991: p. 58.
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RoeSAAnatomia animata: The Newtonian physiology of Albrecht von Haller. In: MendelsohnE, ed. Transformation and Tradition in the Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984: p. 273 (punctuation modified).
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For an overview of Haller's life and work, see: Hintzsche E. Haller, (Victor) Albrecht von. In: GillispieCC, ed. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York: Scribner's, 1970–80: vol. VI, pp. 61–7.
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SharpeL (op. cit. ref. 6): p. 30.
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RoddisLHSchiller, the greatest of the medical poets. Annals of Internal Medicine1936;9:1244. The term “professional services” should be understood here in the general sense of “offering medical advice based on his previous professional training”, and not in the narrow sense of “seeing patients in a formal professional consultation”.
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SchillerF. Medical letters. In: DewhurstKReevesN (op. cit. ref. 1): pp. 299–301.
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Schiller and Music.: pp. 132, 140, 147.
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Schiller and Music.: p. 15.
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SchillerF. Philosophie der Physiologie. In: PetersenJ, eds. Schillers Werke (Nationalausgabe).Weimar: Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1962: vol. XX, pp. 10–29.
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SchillerF. Philosophy of Physiology. In: DewhurstKReevesN (op. cit. ref. 1): pp. 149–65.
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The doctrine of hollow nerves traversed by a fluid spirit was endorsed by Haller and by many other eminent medical figures. In Haller's account, the nervous fluid “circulated to the periphery in order to generate motions and centripetally in order to communicate sensations to the brain”. See: RothschuhKE. History of Physiology (RisseGB, trans.). Huntington, NY: Krieger, 1973: p. 128.
18.
SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 15): pp. 16–18; Schiller F (op. cit. ref. 16): pp. 154–6.
19.
In the surviving fragment of the Philosophy of Physiology, Schiller does not take up the question of the relationship between sensory input and muscular contraction. For Haller, contraction resulted from irritability, an inherent property of muscle fibre that was independent of the nerves and the soul. The action of a nerve might stimulate a muscle to contract, but so might other stimuli. This view was contrary to that of many theorists who held that all contraction resulted from some form of sensation. See: RoeSA (op. cit. ref. 7): p. 279; HintzscheE (op. cit. ref. 8): p. 64.
20.
SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 15): p. 20; Schiller F (op. cit. ref. 16): p. 157.
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SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 15): p. 28; p. 164.
22.
SchillerF. De discrimine febrium inflammatoriarum et putridarum. In: PetersenJ, eds. Schillers Werke (Nationalaugabe).Weimas: Böhlhaus Nachfolger, 1958: vol. XXII, pp. 31–62.
23.
SchillerF. On the Difference Between Inflammatory and Putrid Fevers. In: DewhurstKReevesN (op. cit. ref. 1): pp. 203–38.
24.
SchillerF. Versuch über den Zusammenhang der thierischen Natur des Menschen mit seiner geistigen. In: PetersenJ (op. cit. ref. 15): vol. XX, pp. 37–75.
25.
SchillerF. Essay on the Connection Between the Animal and the Spiritual Nature of Man. In: DewhurstKReevesN (op. cit. ref. 1): pp. 253–85.
26.
One of the examples, in fact, was drawn from Schiller's then unfinished play The Robbers, with the authorship suitably disguised. See: SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 24): pp. 60–1; SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 25): pp. 272–3.
27.
SchillerF. Über die krankheit des Eleven Grammont. In: PetersenJ (op. cit. ref. 22): vol. XXII, pp. 19–30.
28.
Schiller on depression: reports on Grammont's melancholy. In: DewhurstKReevesN (op. cit. ref. 1): pp. 177–95.
29.
Grammont was released from the Military Academy in December 1781 and returned to his home village, where he was declared fully recovered in February 1783. He later became Professor of French at the Gymnasium in Stuttgart. See: DewhurstKReevesN (op. cit. ref. 1): p. 197.
30.
SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 24): p. 46; SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 25): p. 261.
31.
SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 24): p. 46; SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 25): p. 74; p. 284.
32.
For example SharpeL (op. cit. ref. 6): pp. viii, 58, 59.
33.
DewhurstKReevesN (op. cit. ref. 1): pp. 49, 239–40, 286–7.
34.
SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 22): pp. 34–46; Schiller F (op. cit. ref. 23): pp. 207–19.
35.
SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 22): pp. 40, 46; pp. 212–13, 219–20.
36.
SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 22): pp. 47–51; pp. 220–4.
37.
SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 22): pp. 48–57; pp. 222–31.
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SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 22): pp. 57–61; pp. 231–5 (emphasis in English version only).
39.
SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 22): pp. 61–2; pp. 235–6 (translation modified).
40.
ReußCGConsbruchJFKleinCKAssessments of Schiller's treatise on fevers by the medical faculty of the military academy. In: DewhurstKReevesN (op. cit. ref. 1): pp. 238–40.
41.
ConsbruchJFReußCGKleinCKAssessments of the “Philosophy of physiology” by the medical faculty of the military academy. In: DewhurstKReevesN (op. cit. ref. 1): pp. 165–8.
42.
ConsbruchJFReußCGKleinCKAssessments of the “Philosophy of physiology” by the medical faculty of the military academy. In: DewhurstKReevesN (op. cit. ref. 1): p. 168.
43.
ReußCG (op. cit. ref. 40): p. 239.
44.
ReußCG (op. cit. ref. 40): p. 240.
45.
ReußCGConsbruchJFKleinCKAbelJFAssessments of Schiller's “Essay on the connection between the animal and the spiritual nature of man” by the medical faculty of the military academy. In: DewhurstKReevesN (op. cit. ref. 1): pp. 285–7.
46.
SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 24): 37–8; Schiller F (op. cit. ref. 25): pp. 254–5.
47.
DewhurstKReevesN (op. cit. ref. 1): p. 290, n. 58.
48.
AbelJF In: ReußCG (op. cit. ref. 45): p. 287.
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SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 24): pp. 56–68; SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 25): pp. 270–9.
55.
SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 22): pp. 36, 39, 46, 48–51; SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 23): 209, 212, 219–20, 221–4 (emphasis in both the Latin version and the English version).
56.
SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 24): pp. 40–1; SchillerF (op. cit. ref. 25): pp. 256–7.
