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. This procedure is demonstrated in the painting The Extraction of the Stone of Madness by Hieronymus Bosch.
Gallery
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Quentin Massys, An Allegory of Folly (early 16th century). The fool has a "stone of folly" in his forehead.
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Pieter Huys, A surgeon extracting the stone of folly
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Jan Sanders van Hemessen, 1550s
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After Hieronymus Bosch, 16th century
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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.
- Shorter, Edward (1997). A History of Psychiatry. Wiley. p. 225. ISBN 0-471-24531-3.
- Povoledo, Elisabetta (October 27, 2008). "In Rome, a New Museum Invites a Hands-On Approach to Insanity". The Economist. Retrieved 2008-10-28.