Don Quixote – Losing your mind while searching for a meaning Readers of Cervantes' Don Quixote come away wanting to answer one question: Is Don Quixote sane? What follows is a detailed account of Quixote's visit to a psychiatrist upon his return to his village. This incident was apparently not recorded in the original novel for fear that Quixote's reputation would be tarnished. Documentation of his visit was recently recovered by researchers who discovered the incident in a psychiatrist's manuscript. The practitioner was obviously very interested in the meeting as he transcribed the conversation verbatim. The recovery of this important information reveals shocking revelations about Quixote's state of mind. The psychiatrist's analysis of Don Quixote's personality allows the reader to understand the logic of his behavior. Quixote's hallucinations, megalomania, paranoia, and obvious midlife crisis are analyzed to determine his mental health. Psychiatrist: Welcome, Mr. Quixote. Please sit down. Quixote: My title is Don Quixote of La Mancha, but you can call me Don Quixote. Psychiatrist: Very good, Mr. Quixote. Now tell me, what brings you here? Quixote: It all started about a few months ago, when I started having these hallucinations. Psychiatrist: Yes, I remember reading about one of your exploits in which you attacked a windmill. Is this correct? Quixote: Yes, sir, windmills. But they were giants! They were giants as plain as day!Psychiatrist: I see... Well, maybe it was just a quirk of nature.Quixote: Well, actually, sir, every time I see a inn, I take it for a castle.Psychiatrist: Hummm. It's actually weird. Did you get enough sleep?...... middle of paper ......knight errant, Quixote was searching for meaning. His search for purpose in life follows a universal trend. Viktor Frankl dramatizes a modern vision of the quest in his book Man's Search for Meaning. It chronicles his struggle to survive and find personal meaning while enveloped in the horrific depths of a Nazi concentration camp. Frankl was forced to look within to discover the meaning of his existence. Quixote mistakenly sought meaning in life through external means. Although reasonably sane, Don Quixote lost touch with reality in his search for meaning as he became enveloped in the fanciful world of knights errant. ReferenceCervantes, Miguel de. Don Quixote. Trans. JM Cohen. London: Penguin, 1986. Frankl, Viktor. Man's search for meaning. Trans. Ilse Lasch. Boston: Beacon, 1963. Roediger, Henry L. Psychology. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.