Diedelot Denessen MA

PhD Candidate

Cohort/Start PhD: 2025-2026

01 April 2025 – 31 March 2029

Supervisors: Prof. H.G. Knoeff, Dr. K.E. Hollewand and Dr. L.A. van der Deijl

Lovesickness in the Dutch Enlightenment Culture of Psychosomatic Medicine

My project focusses on lovesickness in the Dutch Enlightenment culture of psychosomatic medicine. I consider lovesickness as a concrete example to illustrate how ideas of the mind-body relation changed over the course of the eighteenth century. I do so using a broad, interdisciplinary source selection, including medical texts and treatises, theatre, poetry, and visual arts. I examine how these sources interact with ideas about lovesickness, and associated ideas about medicine, the female body and gender.