The article attempts to show the work of Ingmar Bergman, in particular his 1987 quasi‑autobiography The magic lantern, from the perspective of the medical humanities. Following a slew of Swedish commentators, the article shows the problematic nature of reading Bergman’s text autobiographically, instead focusing on numerous representations of the body and illness. The somatic, psychic and psychosomatic insecurities of the narrator not only occupy a central place here, but they are also one of the basic themes of the Swedish director’s whole oeuvre (they appear, for instance, in the related narrative of Fanny and Alexander). The article also shows how Bergman benefited from the achievements of the American anti‑psychiatry movement and how his literary texts fit into wider cultural contexts in the tradition of melancholy, carnivalesque and abject writing.