Stone of madness
The stone of madness, also called stone of folly, was a hypothetical stone in a patient's head, thought to be the cause of madness, idiocy or dementia. From the 15th century onwards, removing the stone by trepanation was proposed as a remedy.[1][2] This procedure is demonstrated in the painting The Extraction of the Stone of Madness by Hieronymus Bosch.[3]
Gallery
Quentin Massys, An Allegory of Folly (early 16th century). The fool has a "stone of folly" in his forehead.
Pieter Huys, A surgeon extracting the stone of folly
Jan Sanders van Hemessen, 1550s
After Hieronymus Bosch, 16th century
Pieter Jansz. Quast,
Die Steinoperation, ca 1630
References
- Vigué, Jordi (2002). Great Masters of Western Art. Watson-Guptill. p. 71. ISBN 0-8230-2113-0.
There was a popular belief that a so-called "stone of madness" caused idiocy or dementia. To cure this, it was believed necessary to remove a section of the ...
- Shorter, Edward (1997). A History of Psychiatry. Wiley. p. 225. ISBN 0-471-24531-3.
stone of madness.
- Povoledo, Elisabetta (October 27, 2008). "In Rome, a New Museum Invites a Hands-On Approach to Insanity". The Economist. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
The logo of the Mind’s Museum is an overturned funnel. It is a reference to a 15th-century painting by Hieronymus Bosch that depicts a doctor using a scalpel to extract an object (the supposed “stone of madness”) from the skull of a patient. The doctor is wearing a funnel as a hat.
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