Psychological Aberration, Obsession, and Horror in Edgar Allan Poe’s Selected Works

Abstract

At the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, horror writings were the only candid alternative to psychology. They served as the only method to reach and understand those unknown territories where penetration of knowledge was restricted or late. Based on the examination or experience of the darker side of human self, this study explores how horror and mystery stories by American dark romantics like Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) deeply engage with psychological issues. These texts explore how life’s dilemmas and past traumas lead to psychological conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, monomania, schizophrenia, and psychosis. The study uses an interdisciplinary framework that draws on both literary scholarship and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5 2022) in order to explore the representation of psychic issues in Poe’s selected writings. The study concludes that Poe’s characters represent a range of medical conditions and psychological abnormalities through a constellation of concrete symptoms that was unprecedented in his time.