Picking up our series on potential medical issues found in famous works of art, Dr Keith Hopcroft considers this famous painting by Henry Fuseli.
Can you make a diagnosis from the picture?
Hint: Don’t sleep on it. Answer below!
Answer:
Various physical and psychological interpretations have been offered for ‘The Nightmare’ by Henry Fuseli, but of the most prevalent is that this is likely to represent the ‘incubus phenomenon’ – a form of sleep paralysis in which the sufferer experiences a sensation of someone sitting on their chest. This, in turn, is linked with narcolepsy, which can also result in odd hallucinations at the interface between sleep and wakefulness. Hence, perhaps, the hallucinatory horse emerging from behind a curtain.
Further reading
- Nielson T. Molendijk (2017): Incubus phenomenon prevalence: literature review. ceams-carsm blog 2017
- Infanti J. The World’s oldest nightmare. Penn Medicine News 2018
For more on the Art of Diagnosis, see our previous articles in this series:
Spotting pathology in art: Arch in the back
Spotting pathology in art: ‘The Ugly Duchess’
Spotting pathology in art: realist painting of a woman in a field
Spotting pathology in art: 17th-Century Portrait of a Woman
Spotting pathology in art: Self portrait by Dutch magic realist
Spotting pathology in the Mona Lisa
