Abstract

The Russian writer and physician Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) draws on his clinical experience in many of his stories. One of his later masterpieces entitled A Case History (1898) depicts a physician’s visit to a small industrial community where a wealthy young woman is suffering from diffuse symptoms. The physician, Dr Koryolov, meets the patient and makes a diagnosis. While staying on the estate overnight he also analyses the patient’s relation to her living conditions.