Early Life
Munthe began college in 1874 at Uppsala University.
While traveling in 1875, Munthe sailed in a small boat from Sorrento to the island of Capri. Climbing the Phoenician stairs to the village of Anacapri, he came upon a peasant's house and the adjacent ruin of a chapel dedicated to San Michele and was immediately captivated by the idea of rebuilding the ruin into a home.
Munthe studied medicine in Uppsala, Montpellier, and Paris (where he was a student of Charcot), graduating M.D. in 1880 at the age of 23. Though his thesis was on the subject of gynecology and obstetrics, Munthe was deeply impressed by the pioneering work in neurology done by Professor Jean-Martin Charcot, having attended his lectures at the Salpêtrière hospital. He later had a falling out with Charcot, and left the Salpetriere denouncing his former teacher's work on hypnotism as fraudulent and scientifically unsound.
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