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Catalepsy (from Ancient Greek , κατάληψις, "seizing, grasping") is a neurological condition characterized by muscular rigidity and fixity of posture regardless of external stimuli, as well as decreased sensitivity to pain.
St. Teresa of Avila experienced a prolonged bout of catalepsy that began in 1539. This episode was precipitated by the stress she experienced at the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation. Her legs became rigid, leaving her an invalid for three years. Teresa endured intermittent attacks of catalepsy from then on.St. Teresa of Avila, The Life of St. Teresa de Avila, 1565, chapters V, VI, and VII.
Rufina Cambaceres, an Argentine socialite, is well known in Buenos Aires for her tragic death in 1902. The 19 year-old girl experienced a bout of catalepsy on the day of her birthday, May 31, 1902. The night of her burial in the family mausoleum, the caretaker of La Recoleta Cemetery heard noises coming from her vault. He found the coffin was not in the right position, with scratch marks on the inside of the lid and the girl's face. Rufina had been buried alive. The reason for her bout of catalepsy has never been fully clarified but it is presumed that she died of suffocation after waking up.
In Alexandre Dumas, père's novel The Count of Monte Cristo, the Abbé Faria has fits of catalepsy from time to time, before eventually dying from one.
In Eugène Sue's The Mysteries of Paris, the villain Jacques Ferrand experiences a fit described as cataleptic in his final confrontation with Rodolphe, blinded by lamplight and hallucinating with visions of his fantasized Cecily.
In George Eliot's Silas Marner, the main character Silas Marner frequently has cataleptic fits and seizures, which adds to his uncanny reputation as a wizard or "Cunning folk" among the superstitious natives of his adopted village of Raveloe.
In Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Resident Patient", a man feigns catalepsy to gain access to a neurologist's rooms; the doctor attempts to treat him with amyl nitrite.
In Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier, the protagonist Dowell experiences catalepsy following the death of his wife.
In Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, the main character Valentine Michael Smith is believed to have catalepsy when he is returned to Earth.
In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Premature Burial", the narrator develops catalepsy. He fears being mistakenly declared dead and Premature burial, and goes to great lengths to prevent this. In another of Poe's short stories, "The Fall of the House of Usher", Madeline Usher has catalepsy and is buried alive by her unstable brother Roderick. Catalepsy is also depicted in "Berenice", thus becoming one of the recurrent themes in Poe's fiction.
In Poppy Z. Brite's Exquisite Corpse, the main character—Compton, a serial killer facing a lifetime sentence—uses shamanistic techniques to induce catalepsy and, convincingly appearing deceased, is able to escape prison.
In Émile Zola's short story "La Mort d'Olivier Becaille" ("The Death of Olivier Becaille"), the title character is buried alive and notes that "I must have fallen into one of those cataleptic states that I had read of."
In Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu novels, Dr. Fu Manchu has a serum that induces a state of catalepsy so extreme as to be indistinguishable from death.
In Charles Dickens's novel Bleak House, Mrs. Snagsby has violent spasms before becoming cataleptic and being carried upstairs like a grand piano.
In Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Greek Philosophy to Plato, Hegel describes Socrates as having catalepsy caused by magnetic somnambulism when in deep meditation.
In Charles Williams's novel Many Dimensions, Sir Giles Tumulty says to Lord Arglay, the Chief Justice of England: "You are a louse-brained catalept, Arglay."
In Philip K. Dick's novel Now Wait for Last Year, Kathy Sweetscent becomes immobilized by withdrawal from JJ-180, an alien (and highly addictive) drug. "My God, Kathy thought as she stood gazing down at the record by her feet. I can't free myself; I'm going to remain here, and they'll find me like this and know something's terribly wrong. This is catalepsy!"
In the second chapter of Álvares de Azevedo's Noite na Taverna, character Solfieri rescues a woman who has catalepsy from inside a coffin.
In Sheridan Le Fanu's novella The Room in the Dragon Volant, a naïve young man falls foul of a criminal gang who employ a curious, bulbocapnine-like drug which induces catalepsy, as a result of which he narrowly escapes premature burial.
In the Ted Hughes poem titled "Conjuring in Heaven" from Crow, the eponymous character is left in a state of catalepsy.Hughes, T. (1972). Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow. London: Faber & Faber.
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In the movie Son of Dracula (1943), vampire hunter Professor Lazlo (J. Edward Bromberg) describes a vampire as being in a "cataleptic state" between sunrise and sunset, but practically "invincible" during the nighttime, to Dr. Harry Brewster (Frank Craven), as they look for answers to a number of strange situations involving Count Alucard (Lon Chaney Jr.).
In the movie The Comedy of Terrors (1963), John Black (Basil Rathbone) is stated to suffer from catalepsy, and is mistaken for dead several times throughout the movie.
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