779142 APY Australasian PsychiatryRotstein

Australasian
Regular Article Psychiatry
Australasian Psychiatry

Hamlet and psychiatry intertwined 1­–3

© The Royal Australian and
New Zealand College of Psychiatrists 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/1039856218779142
https://doi.org/10.1177/1039856218779142
journals.sagepub.com/home/apy
Sarah Rotstein  Psychiatry Registrar, Monash Alfred Psychiatric Research Centre (MAPrc),
Monash University Central Clinical School, Alfred Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Abstract
Objectives: This article considers selected landmarks in the history of psychiatry and their impact on Hamlet pro-
ductions, including Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholia, Emil Kraepelin’s manic-depression, Freud’s oedipal complex
and R.D. Laing’s ‘divided self’. Additionally, this article considers the way Shakespeare’s Hamlet has influenced the
course of psychiatry.
Conclusion: The linkages between psychiatry and Hamlet have existed since the 17th century, and perhaps Shake-
speare’s Hamlet should have a place on every psychiatrist’s shelf.

Keywords:  Hamlet, Shakespeare, psychiatry, history

S
hakespeare’s Hamlet says he will ‘put an antic dispo-
sition on’ (1.5.173). But Hamlet’s ‘madness’ appears
purposeless and hinders his ability to exact revenge.
Therefore, despite Hamlet’s claim, ‘I essentially am not
in madness, but mad in craft’ (3.4.189–190), it is easy to
question his sanity. More than 400 years after the play
was written, Shakespeare scholars and students continue
to ponder whether there is indeed method in Hamlet’s
madness.
But what is ‘madness’? Since the 16th century, medicine
has been given increasing authority to determine the
boundaries between sanity and disorder. However, in the
absence of clear biological markers, the definition of
‘mental illness’ has changed dramatically throughout
the centuries.
Psychiatry has an inextricable link with culture.
Developments in psychiatry can both be influenced by
culture and exert significant influence on culture. It is
therefore unsurprising that changing perspectives in
psychiatry have influenced Hamlet performances across
the centuries and that many great psychiatric thinkers
have themselves been influenced by Hamlet.
Melancholic Hamlet
Sir Henry Halford (1776–1844), physician to King
George III, was astonished by how ‘exactly did he
[Shakespeare] portray in Hamlet the symptoms described
by Burton’.1 Sir Halford assumed that Shakespeare must
have known of Robert Burton’s work. In fact, Burton
published his ‘Anatomy of Melancholy’ in 1621,2 five
years following Shakespeare’s death.1 Burton may have
been inspired by Hamlet, as Burton certainly was famil-
iar with Shakespeare’s works.3 Despite the inaccuracy,
Halford’s comments i­ nfluenced subsequent perfor-
mances of Hamlet.1 In the 18th century, David Garrick
brought Hamlet to Drury Lane and performed a Hamlet
in mourning, ‘this prince [Hamlet] of a reserved cau-
tious turn, arising from a melancholy stamped on him
by his father’s untimely death and some consequent
misfortunes’.4 John Phillip Kemble, the dominate
Hamlet during the late 18th and early 19th centuries,
continued to highlight Hamlet’s melancholy as a ‘unify-
ing idea’.5 The understanding of Hamlet as experiencing
melancholia or depression remains popular in adapta-
tions today.
Manic-Depressive Hamlet
‘What a rash and bloody deed is this!’ (3.4.29).
Melancholia struggles to explain Hamlet’s moments of
rash, reckless action. Adaptations focusing purely on
Hamlet as depressed can create rather jarring juxtaposi-
tions between the melancholic prince and his reckless
impulsive moments. In 1921, Emil Kraepelin’s descrip-
tion of manic-depressive disorder combined the con-
cepts of melancholia and mania into a cohesive
diagnosis.6 Almost a century later, David Tennant’s
Hamlet ‘emerges as an undiagnosed manic depressive,
whose mood swings render him temperamentally inca-
pable of fulfilling a revenge scenario’.7 Tennant is the
Corresponding author:
Sarah Rotstein, Monash Alfred Psychiatric Research Centre
(MAPrc), Monash University Central Clinical School, Alfred
Health, MAPrc, level 4, 607 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, VIC
3004, Australia.
Email: sarah.rotstein@monash.edu

1

melancholic prince contemplating suicide in ‘too too
solid flesh’ (1.2.129). But at other moments, Tennant’s
Hamlet demonstrates increased rate of speech, humour
(somewhat inappropriately) and a child-like jubilance –
possibly consistent with mania. Whether Tennant was
influenced by Kraepelin’s manic-depressive disorder or
modern concepts of bipolar disorder is unclear. However,
the number of critics citing ‘manic depressive’ to describe
Tennant’s performance demonstrates the ongoing con-
nection between psychiatry and Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Freudian Hamlet
While melancholia and manic-depressive disorder may
allow for labelling of Hamlet’s symptoms, psychoanalysis
emphasises the aetiological potency of unconscious con-
flicts. In the 20th century, Sigmund Freud described the
oedipal complex. Freud had been reading Shakespeare
since his own boyhood, and arguably his theories were
derived more from Shakespeare than from his patients.1
Indeed, Shakespeare quotes are peppered throughout
Freud’s works, and there is reference to Hamlet in Freud’s
considerations of the oedipal desire. It is Freud’s biogra-
pher, Ernest Jones, who details an oedipal interpretation
of Hamlet in ‘A Psychoanalytic Study of Hamlet’.8 Jones
explains Hamlet’s inaction as a manifestation of empathy
and identification with Claudius. Claudius was able to
fulfil Hamlet’s own unconscious fantasy of murder and
incest. Therefore, Hamlet’s empathy for Claudius creates
much internal conflict and hinders Hamlet’s ability to
avenge his father. This Freudian interpretation has
strongly impacted many productions. The most notable
Freudian Hamlet is Sir Laurence Olivier. Olivier admitted
to being inspired by Jones,9 and the film ’(released in
1948) has overt Freudian leanings. Elsinore castle, a lonely
labyrinth surrounded by a raging sea, represents Hamlet’s
mind. The close-up of Olivier’s forehead during ‘to be or
not to be’ (3.1.57) emphasises the presence of uncon-
scious conflict. The origin of this conflict becomes clear in
Gertrude’s closet scene. Olivier and Eileen Herlie are phys-
ically close during the scene and there is an intimate eye
contact moment with a soundscape of a heartbeat. There
are other Hamlets struggling with oedipal desires.
Zeffirelli’s Hamlet, 1990, starring Mel Gibson, provides
another erotically charged closet scene, including a long
kiss between Gibson and Glen Close.10 Kenneth Branagh’s
1996 Hamlet is literally undressing Gertrude before
Polonius cries for help. However, psychoanalysis’ domi-
nance in psychiatry was short-lived, and many new and
radical interpretations of the vexed Dane have followed.
Hamlet’s Divided Self
Ronald Davide Laing was a psychiatrist and pop icon of
the 1960s. Laing broke away from traditional ­understanding
and management of mental illness and is associated with
the development of the anti-psychiatry movement.11
Contrary to mainstream psychiatry, Laing believed
­psychosis was a result of a ‘divided self’ – c­ onflicts between
2
Australasian Psychiatry 00(0)
the inner person and the persona expressed publicly.12
Laing established Kingsley Hall, a type of ‘therapeutic
community’, where patients were encouraged to explore
their symptoms and undergo their own personal jour-
neys.11 It was Laing’s views that inspired Ian Rickson’s pro-
duction of Hamlet in 2012.13 The play, staring Michael
Sheen, confused the boundaries between reality and
Hamlet’s mind. The Vic Theatre was transformed into an
asylum and Shakespeare’s characters reimagined as
patients and doctors. Ambiguities included whether
Hamlet’s father was indeed murdered or whether Hamlet
had created this delusion as a projection of his uncon-
scious hatred of his father.13 In line with Laing’s belief in
the importance of self and symptom exploration as the
journey of self-healing, Rickson’s Hamlet can easily be
understood as a man’s personal journey from existential
conflict and ‘madness’ to rebirth. This explanation was
encouraged by Sheen’s multiple roles within the play,
including Hamlet, the ghost of King Hamlet and
Fortinbras.14 With Sheen’s own voice demanding revenge,
the ghost was Hamlet’s own internalised representation of
his father – perhaps hinting that the late King Hamlet was
more tyrannical than loving as a father. At the end of the
play, Hamlet was buried on the stage and Fortinbras,
dressed in black, including a mask concealing his face,
delivered the play’s concluding lines.14 Following these
lines, with clever use of lighting, the audience was pro-
vided a glimpse of Fortinbras without his mask. The face
was Sheen’s face – Hamlet’s face. Far from the usual tragic
ending, this final reveal suggested a message of hope.
Perhaps having progressed through his journey, Hamlet
had buried the ‘madness’ and been reborn. Embodying
the character of Fortinbras, Hamlet had become the self-
assured man-of-action that he long admired. Just as Laing
would have predicted, Sheen’s Hamlet took a ‘stormy voy-
age of the heart and mind’15 and emerged healed.
DSM Hamlet?
Following psychoanalysis’ loss of favour and the intro-
duction of psychotropic medications, the focus of main-
stream psychiatry practice shifted from considering the
psychological aetiology of disorders to creating objec-
tive classifications of disorders. The Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders third edition (DSM
III), together with its subsequent editions, moved psy-
chiatric diagnosis to a checklist ‘cookbook’ approach.
Long considered the ‘Bible of psychiatry’, the DSM was
initially marketed as bringing the scientific method to
psychiatric diagnosis and improving diagnostic reliabil-
ity. Now, many psychiatrists and research institutions
question its validity. It is therefore not surprising that
the DSM has not been embraced by Shakespearian
actors or directors. Its simplistic reduction of complex
mental states doesn’t suit the Bard’s Hamlet, ‘arguably
the greatest dramatic character ever created’.16 Further,
the act of applying DSM criteria to the character of
Hamlet could be seen to ‘cut pieces out of the greatest
portrait of a character in the greatest play ever written’.1
Perhaps DSM’s poor compatibility with Shakespeare’s
Rotstein

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Disclosure
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2018).

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