The socio-cultural legacy of encephalitis lethargica and its representation in popular and mass culture

We propose an analysis of the socio-cultural legacy of encephalitis lethargica and post-encephalitic parkinsonism, and of their representations outside the scientific literature. Over the years, these conditions have been depicted in various ways, fueling a series of reflections on consciousness, time and memory. These representations have gradually flanked and partly overlapped the historical dimension of the disease. Encephalitis lethargica, in its core of historical reality, and its multiple representations constitute an inseparable and fascinating combination that continues to influence, even if in a subtle way, our way of looking at sleep, consciousness, memory, and our brain.