The man from Papyrus 3024: Did he meet the criteria?

Abstract

Background

In 1896 Adolf Erman, a famous Egyptologist, published the translation of Papyrus 3024 from the Egyptian Middle Empire: a dialogue of a man, tired of life, with his soul. Since than the manuscript has been considered as one the first accounts of a case of melancholia.

Method

Occasionally historians make modern psychiatric diagnoses in historical figures. Sometimes this is done with the expectation than doing this will add new information. However, modern diagnostic concepts are themselves historical narratives and social constructs and do not especially convey new information. Viewed from the perspective of the Lacanian discourse analysis this is an example of ‘the master’ or ‘scientific’ discourse. In this contribution the internal dialogue of the man will be described from the Lacanian perspective.

Results

Analytical reading, in which the attention is focused on the speaking subject en his relationships, does not generate post hoc diagnoses in the usual sense, but may be helpful to understand more of the writer of the papyrus and his interpreters. The ‘dialogue with his soul’ can be to be understood as the return to his origins, in which the Desire reappears again and again.

Conclusions

The Lacanian discourse analysis may be a suitable instrument to highlight the essential aspects of this old manuscript.