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Review
. 2025 Jun 19;15(6):104247.
doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i6.104247.

Literary case study of psychosis: The Vegetarian

Gabor S Ungvari  1   2 , Stanley N Caroff  3   4 , Levente Csihi  5 , Gábor Gazdag  5   6
Affiliations
Review

Literary case study of psychosis: The Vegetarian

Gabor S Ungvari et al. World J Psychiatry. .

Abstract

In the award-winning and widely-acclaimed fictional novel, The Vegetarian, the author, Han Kang, relates a compelling and dramatic story of inexorable psychotic deterioration from the perspective of a tragically affected young woman and her close family members. Apart from a variety of interpretations of psychosis from historical, social, psychological, and feminist perspectives, the book also presents a detailed and realistic picture of objective psychotic symptoms that reveals insights into historic and nearly forgotten phenomenological concepts. In this literary case study, we analyze the symptoms remarkably described by the author and briefly review the medical literature on the phenomena of catatonia, schizophrenic autism, paragnomen and the praecox-feeling.

Keywords: Autism; Case study; Catatonia; Paragnomen; Praecox-feeling; The Vegetarian.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict-of-interest statement: Caroff SN was a consultant/speaker for Medscape, EPI-Q, Clinical Education Alliance, and received royalties from American Psychiatric Press and Wolters Kluwer. The other authors have no conflict-of- interest to declare.

References

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    1. Interview with Han Kang. [cited 19 April 2025]. Available from: https://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/interview-with-han-kang/
    1. Marchalik D, Jurecic A. Mental illness in Han Kang's The Vegetarian. Lancet. 2017;389:147. - PubMed

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