Voer voor psychiaters. Willem Bilderdijk als patiënt

Samenvatting

In his correspondence, Willem Bilderdijk constantly complained about an infinite row of various diseases. Because of his constant illness and melancholy, Bilderdijk longed his whole life long for the grave. To a large extent, his melancholy was part of his image; being a melancholic was, since Aristotle, interpreted as a sign of genius. In this article this aspect is left aside. Bilderdijk will, for the first time, be examined as a psychiatric case. What diseases did he complain of in his poems and letters during his life? And what diagnosis can be made on the patient Bilderdijk, on the basis of current psychiatric insights?