An Instance of Sleep Paralysis in Moby-Dick | Zendy

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An Instance of Sleep Paralysis in Moby-Dick

Author(s) -

Joseph Herman

Publication year - 1997

Publication title -

sleep

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 2.222

H-Index - 207

eISSN - 1550-9109

pISSN - 0161-8105

DOI - 10.1093/sleep/20.7.577

Subject(s) - sleep paralysis , paralysis , recall , quarter (canadian coin) , hysteria , weir , sleep (system call) , psychoanalysis , psychology , literature , medicine , philosophy , psychiatry , history , insomnia , art , cognitive psychology , sleep disorder , excessive daytime sleepiness , computer science , cartography , archaeology , operating system , geography

It is suggested that picturesque medical conditions can, at times, be encountered in literary works composed prior to their clinical delineation. This is true of sleep paralysis, of which the first scientific description was given by Silas Weir Mitchell in 1876. A quarter of a century earlier, Herman Melville, in Moby-Dick, gave a precise account of a case, including the predisposing factors and sexual connotations, all in accord with modern theory. The details of Ishmael's attack of sleep paralysis, the stresses leading up to it, and the associations causing him to recall the experience are given here.

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