[Neurology in Bohemian Lights].

Abstract

Introduction: Valle-Inclán's Bohemian Lights is the inaugural work of the esperpento, a literary genre that was born with the intention of offering distorted images of reality as a way of accessing it in a reflexive way.

Material and methods: Critical reading of the editio princeps of the work to analyze its neurological content.

Results: The character of Max Estrella, inspired by the figure of Alejandro Sawa, would not meet the criteria for encephalitis. The diagnoses of Charles Bonnet syndrome and death due to stroke are more likely. The characters at the wake discuss the differential diagnosis between death and catalepsy, and one of them suffers a non-epileptic event.

Conclusions: Bohemian Lights reflects different social, political and cultural aspects contemporary to the author. Health and disease are also addressed, with a preponderant role for neurology.