Othello, un délire de jalousie ?

Abstract

ObjectivesThe objective is to encircle the type of pathological jealousy presented by Othello, the Shakespearean hero. Othello is a renowned tragedy indeed to be a crime of passion. Number of authors, literary critics of course, but also psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, were interested in the figure of Othello. Normal jealousy, paranoiac jealousy, delirious with jealousy? Shakespeare's tragedy is for us the opportunity to come back from the historic point of view on the normal and pathological jealousy, and more especially on the frenzy of jealousy. MethodReview of the literature in the field of the psychiatry and the psychoanalysis, dedicated to the diverse clinical diagnoses envisaged for Othello. History of the “delirious jealousy” during the xixth and xixth centuries. Psychoanalytical and psychiatric contributions on the morbid jealousy, in particular the works of D. Lagache and of H. Ey. ResultsThe madness of Othello seems to correspond line for line to a special form of frenzy of interpretation according to Sérieux and Capgras. DiscussionThe discussions concern the various types of jealousy (morbid, pathological, delirious, normal, etc.) as well as on the question of the delirious “interpretation”. ConclusionShakespeare's genius was able, in numerous tragedies, to highlight a number of pathologies (madness of Hamlet, frenzy of King Lear or Macbeth, delirious misanthropy of Timon of Athens, etc.). Here, Othello gives all its value to the conception of the frenzy of interpretation according to Sérieux and Capgras.