HEROES ON THE COUCH. From Goethe's Werther to Harry Potter: A psychiatric foray through literary history.

Would some parenting advice early on have helped Oedipus’ mother and father avoid their terrible fates? Would Romeo and Juliet’s romantic tragedy have taken a different path if they hadn’t been pubescent teenagers? Is Christian in 50 Shades of Grey compensating for insecurity about his masculinity with his erotic phantasies? It’s hard to imagine what would have happened if our literary heroes had promptly sought professional help. Lots of our favourite stories would be so tedious that they might never have been published. This amusing jaunt through literary history shows that literary characters are people, too, and that heroes and heroines have their fair share of complexes and neuroses…