266 the continuing theme of not being prepared to work productively to achieve one‘s dreams, the typical madrileño failing of quiero y no puedo.
Entirely incapable of putting his own life and affairs in order, Raimundo nevertheless is able to identify the locura crematística that destroys his middle sister, Eloísa,
en Madrid se gasta más dinero del que existe [...] la sociedad matritense está en perpetuo déficit, en perpetua bancarrota [...] no se verifica una transacción grande o pequeña, desde el gran negocio de Bolsa a la insignificante compra en una tiendecilla, sin que en dicha transacción haya alguien que sea chasqueado. (prohibido 311)
and that infects all of the society that surrounds her.
Signs of physical and mental degeneration recur throughout the novel. We learn that José María, apart from his recurring, severe migraine attacks 408 and often unbearable noises in his ears, also suffers from disturbing, auditory hallucinations, ―voces humanas, a veces un extraño coro […] que llegaba a producirme alucinación de la realidad.‖ (prohibido 181) and, on another occasion, suffers from unspecified, ―sìntomas de decadencia fìsica que me alarmaban‖ (prohibido 201). At times, Galdós
severe migraine attacks: the jaquecas that José María suffers throughout the novel are paralleled by Galdós‘s personal experience (Berkowitz 409). In Galdós‘s copy of Armangué y Tuset‘s Estudios clínicos de neuropatología (1884) dedicated, to him by the author (Nuez Caballero, 98), the second half of the 244-page volume is entirely devoted to chapters dealing with jaqueca. Underlinings in the text highlight many of the medical complaints that are suffered by characters in Lo prohibido (see above). Severe headaches were also considered a feature of neurosyphilis (see later). 408