"It is wisest here, as always, to maintain a balance": the medical dissertations of Friedrich Schiller

Abstract

Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) is remembered today for his contributions to literature and aesthetic theory - it is less well known that his first career was in medicine (an army appointment). Scholars have generally held that his primary interest lay in psychology and the psychological aspects of medicine, and that his commitment to other aspects of medicine was perfunctory at best. The present paper argues that a study of Schiller's three medical dissertations - two on psychological aspects of medicine and one on fevers - reveals his attempt "to maintain a balance" between the mind and the body in his approach to medicine.