Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: hallucinations

  • Haunted by a living spirit

    Bernardo NgSan Diego, California, United States Witchcraft has been present in the Mexican culture for centuries, both in and out of the context of disease, with witches practicing either white or black magic. The most nationally recognized site for witchcraft is the city of Catemaco, Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico. The white magic witches,…

  • Nabokov’s first masterpiece

    Nicholas KangAuckland, New Zealand Gradually the lights disappeared, the phantoms grew sparser, and a wave of oppressive blackness washed over him. The Defense, a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, describes the mental breakdown and ultimate suicide of its fictional protagonist Aleksandr Ivanovich Luzhin. It is a remarkable literary rendering of what might be termed the process…

  • Neurologica – Disorders of the dream world

    Shameemah AbrahamsCape Town The human mind, so capable of creating works of genius like the orchestral sounds of Beethoven’s symphonies, da Vinci’s enigmatic artwork, or the majestic pyramids of Giza, can easily lose itself and spiral into the chaotic tragedy of dementia. Various forms of “frailties” of the mind have been seen in the artistically…