Para una lectura psicológica de los cuentecillos de locos del segundo Don Quijote

Abstract

While a psychological interpretation can never explain a text, it can help us to identify the anguish that triggered the writing of the text. The three stories of madmen in the prologue and in Chapter One of the 1615 Quijote are all examples of schizophrenia, illustrating two fundamental characteristics of that disorder: (1) the schizophrenic finds it extraordinarily difficult to adapt to change, because he identifies completely with his environment and finds a way to control or master it: and (2) the schizophrenic is almost entirely incapable of associating the representation of a word with the representation of a thing. The madman who thinks he is Neptune is unconsciously unwilling to leave the asylum, because he has identified completely with his environment and with the role he plays in it. The two stories of madmen and dogs in the prologue are both based on a schizophrenic's literal interpretation of figurative language. These two madmen identify not with their physical surroundings but with their peculiar relationship with dogs. The madman of Seville (the one who inflated dogs) represents Cervantes himself, while the madman of Cordova (who dropped stones on dogs, and later wrongly considered all dogs pointers) represents Avellaneda.