Studies have shown that there are much higher instances
of mental disorder in political leaders and creative
geniuses than in the general population. And while it's
impossible to be completely sure of a correct diagnosis of
a historical figure, that hasn’t stopped researchers from
making educated guesses. Here's a speculative look at the
mental health of 11 of history's big thinkers.
1. Abraham Lincoln – Depression?
The Great Emancipator managed to lead the country
through one of its more trying times, despite suffering from
severe depression most of his life. According to one
Lincoln biographer, letters left by the president’s friends
referred to him as “the most depressed person they've
ever seen.” On at least one occasion, he was so overcome
with “melancholy” that he collapsed. Both his mother and
numerous members of his father’s family exhibited similar
symptoms of severe depression, indicating he was
probably biologically susceptible to the illness. Lincoln is
even assumed to be the author of a poem published in
1838, "The Suicide’s Soliloquy,” which contains the lines:
Hell! What is hell to one like me
Who pleasures never knew;
By friends consigned to misery,
By hope deserted too?
2. Ludwig von Beethoven – Bipolar Disorder?
When the composer died of liver failure in 1827, he had
been self-medicating his many health problems with
alcohol for decades. Sadly, much of what he may have
suffered from probably could have been managed with
today’s medications, including a serious case of bipolar
disorder. Beethoven’s fits of mania were well known in his
circle of friends, and when he was on a high he could
compose numerous works at once. It was during his down
periods that many of his most celebrated works were
written. Sadly, that was also when he contemplated
suicide, as he told his brothers in letters throughout his
life. During the early part of 1813 he went through such a
depressive period that he stopped caring about his
appearance, and would fly into rages during dinner parties.
He also stopped composing almost completely during that
time.
3. Edvard Munch – Panic Attacks?
The world’s most famous panic attack occurred in Olso
during January 1892. Munch recorded the episode in his
diary:
“One evening I was walking along a path, the city was
on one side and the fjord below. I felt tired and ill. I
stopped and looked out over the fjord—the sun was
setting, and the clouds turning blood red. I sensed a
scream passing through nature.”
This experience affected the artist so deeply he returned to
the moment again and again, eventually making two
paintings, two pastels, and a lithograph based on his
experience, as well as penning a poem derived from the
diary entry. While it isn’t known if Munch had any more
panic attacks, mental illness did run in his family; at the
time of his episode, his bipolar sister was in an asylum.
4. Michelangelo – Autism?
You might have wondered in the past just how someone
could paint something as huge as the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel. According to a paper published in the Journal of
Medical Biography in 2004, Michelangelo’s single-minded
routine may have been due to the disorder. According to
descriptions by his contemporaries, the painter was
“preoccupied with his own reality.” Most of the male
members of his family are recorded to have exhibited
similar symptoms. Michelangelo also seems to have had
difficulty forming relationships with people; he had few
friends and didn’t even attend his brother’s funeral. All of
this, combined with his obvious genius in math and art, led
the researchers to believe that today Michelangelo would
be considered high functioning on the autism spectrum.
5. Charles Dickens – Depression?
By his early 30s, Dickens was the most famous author in
the world. He was wealthy and seemed to have it all. But
after an unbelievably difficult childhood, which saw the
author working in a boot factory and living on his own when
his father was thrown in prison, Dickens would start falling
into depressions with the start of each new novel. The first
one to cause him problems was one of his lesser-known
works, The Chimes , in 1844. After that, Dickens’ friends
wrote that he became down every time he set to work on a
new project, but that his mood would gradually lift until he
was in a kind of mania by the time he finished. His
depression worsened with age, and he eventually separated
from his wife – the mother of his ten children – to live
with an 18-year-old actress. After he was involved in a
train crash four years before his death, in which he was
uninjured but was forced to assist dying passengers before
help came, his depression seems to have finally staunched
his creativity, and his previously prolific output virtually
ceased.
6. Charles Darwin – Agoraphobia?
Scholars still debate just exactly what problems Darwin
suffered from, but whatever they were, they were serious.
Despite his famed five year voyage on the Beagle (and the
publication it led to) making his career, Darwin was
virtually incapacitated the entire time. While he
concentrated on his physical symptoms as the cause of all
his suffering, the constant trembling, nausea, hysterical
crying, and visual hallucinations (among other things)
seem to have been mostly caused by a severe case of
agoraphobia that kept him virtually bedridden from the
time he turned thirty. Darwin’s fear of people meant he
would even avoid conversations with his own children,
writing, “I am forced to live… very quietly and am able to
see scarcely anybody and cannot even talk long with my
nearest relations.” In at least one letter he mentions
feeling like committing suicide due to the publication of On
the Origin of Species , the controversy over which caused
him much distress. He may have also suffered from OCD
and/or hypochondria, as he kept meticulous records of
every new or recurring symptom.
7. Winston Churchill – Bipolar Disorder?
Like Lincoln, Churchill was a great leader dealing not only
with international strife but his own mental struggles at
the same time. In his 30s, he complained to his friends
that he was hounded by the “black dog of depression.” He
sat in the Houses of Parliament and contemplated suicide.
Churchill told his doctor that he had to be careful where he
stood in a train station:
“I don't like standing near the edge of a platform when
an express train is passing through,” he told his
doctor. “I like to stand right back and if possible get a
pillar between me and the train. I don't like to stand
by the side of a ship and look down into the water. A
second's action would end everything. A few drops of
desperation.”
The black dog would follow him the rest of his life. When in
his mild manic phases he was personable, but his moods
could change quickly. During periods of high mania he
would stay up all night writing, eventually producing 43
books on top of attending to his political duties.
8. Vaslav Nijinsky – Schizophrenia?
While not well-known today, in the early 1900s, Nijinsky
was a household name. Considered the greatest male
dancer of his era, he was famous for his intense
performances, gigantic leaps, and ability to dance on his
toes (en pointe), something uncommon among male
dancers at the time. When he took to choreographing
ballets, his modern take on the dance led to a riot. By the
time Nijinsky was 26, the symptoms of his disease were
affecting his work. He spent the rest of his life in and out
of mental hospitals, often going weeks at a time without
saying a word.
9. Kurt Gödel – Persecutory Delusions?
Gödel was a brilliant logician and mathematician, as well
as a contemporary and great friend of Albert Einstein.
Einstein’s super-intelligence might have made him seem a
little odd to the average person, but he doesn’t seem to
have suffered from any actual mental illnesses. Gödel, on
the other hand, thought that someone was out to poison
him. He was so sure of this delusion, especially later in
life, that he would only eat food that his wife had cooked,
and usually made her taste it first, just to be sure. When
his wife was hospitalized for six months, Gödel simply
stopped eating and starved to death.
10. Leo Tolstoy – Depression?
Tolstoy did not suffer from obvious signs of depression
until middle age, but when it hit him, it hit hard. He went
through serious personality changes, questioning virtually
everything in his life. At times he debated giving away all
of his possessions, becoming celibate, and the nature of
his religious beliefs (or lack thereof). At one point he was
determined to give up writing altogether, saying, "art is not
only useless but even harmful.” Tolstoy is a perfect
example of someone who seemingly has everything
brought low by this disease: despite coming from a
wealthy family, being celebrated as an author, and being
father to 13 children, eventually his demons drove him to
seriously consider suicide. He wrote in one letter, “The
possibility of killing himself has been given to man, and
therefore he may kill himself.” Eventually Tolstoy pulled
himself out of this hole by becoming what we would now
consider a born-again Christian.
11. Isaac Newton – Everything?
One of the greatest scientists of all time is also the
hardest genius to diagnose, but historians agree he had a
lot going on. Newton suffered from huge ups and downs in
his moods, indicating bipolar disorder, combined with
psychotic tendencies. His inability to connect with people
could place him on the autism spectrum. He also had a
tendency to write letters filled with mad delusions, which
some medical historians feel strongly indicates
schizophrenia. Whether he suffered from one or a
combination of these serious illnesses, they did not stop
him from inventing calculus, explaining gravity, and
building telescopes, among his other great scientific
achievements.
of mental disorder in political leaders and creative
geniuses than in the general population. And while it's
impossible to be completely sure of a correct diagnosis of
a historical figure, that hasn’t stopped researchers from
making educated guesses. Here's a speculative look at the
mental health of 11 of history's big thinkers.
1. Abraham Lincoln – Depression?
The Great Emancipator managed to lead the country
through one of its more trying times, despite suffering from
severe depression most of his life. According to one
Lincoln biographer, letters left by the president’s friends
referred to him as “the most depressed person they've
ever seen.” On at least one occasion, he was so overcome
with “melancholy” that he collapsed. Both his mother and
numerous members of his father’s family exhibited similar
symptoms of severe depression, indicating he was
probably biologically susceptible to the illness. Lincoln is
even assumed to be the author of a poem published in
1838, "The Suicide’s Soliloquy,” which contains the lines:
Hell! What is hell to one like me
Who pleasures never knew;
By friends consigned to misery,
By hope deserted too?
2. Ludwig von Beethoven – Bipolar Disorder?
When the composer died of liver failure in 1827, he had
been self-medicating his many health problems with
alcohol for decades. Sadly, much of what he may have
suffered from probably could have been managed with
today’s medications, including a serious case of bipolar
disorder. Beethoven’s fits of mania were well known in his
circle of friends, and when he was on a high he could
compose numerous works at once. It was during his down
periods that many of his most celebrated works were
written. Sadly, that was also when he contemplated
suicide, as he told his brothers in letters throughout his
life. During the early part of 1813 he went through such a
depressive period that he stopped caring about his
appearance, and would fly into rages during dinner parties.
He also stopped composing almost completely during that
time.
3. Edvard Munch – Panic Attacks?
The world’s most famous panic attack occurred in Olso
during January 1892. Munch recorded the episode in his
diary:
“One evening I was walking along a path, the city was
on one side and the fjord below. I felt tired and ill. I
stopped and looked out over the fjord—the sun was
setting, and the clouds turning blood red. I sensed a
scream passing through nature.”
This experience affected the artist so deeply he returned to
the moment again and again, eventually making two
paintings, two pastels, and a lithograph based on his
experience, as well as penning a poem derived from the
diary entry. While it isn’t known if Munch had any more
panic attacks, mental illness did run in his family; at the
time of his episode, his bipolar sister was in an asylum.
4. Michelangelo – Autism?
You might have wondered in the past just how someone
could paint something as huge as the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel. According to a paper published in the Journal of
Medical Biography in 2004, Michelangelo’s single-minded
routine may have been due to the disorder. According to
descriptions by his contemporaries, the painter was
“preoccupied with his own reality.” Most of the male
members of his family are recorded to have exhibited
similar symptoms. Michelangelo also seems to have had
difficulty forming relationships with people; he had few
friends and didn’t even attend his brother’s funeral. All of
this, combined with his obvious genius in math and art, led
the researchers to believe that today Michelangelo would
be considered high functioning on the autism spectrum.
5. Charles Dickens – Depression?
By his early 30s, Dickens was the most famous author in
the world. He was wealthy and seemed to have it all. But
after an unbelievably difficult childhood, which saw the
author working in a boot factory and living on his own when
his father was thrown in prison, Dickens would start falling
into depressions with the start of each new novel. The first
one to cause him problems was one of his lesser-known
works, The Chimes , in 1844. After that, Dickens’ friends
wrote that he became down every time he set to work on a
new project, but that his mood would gradually lift until he
was in a kind of mania by the time he finished. His
depression worsened with age, and he eventually separated
from his wife – the mother of his ten children – to live
with an 18-year-old actress. After he was involved in a
train crash four years before his death, in which he was
uninjured but was forced to assist dying passengers before
help came, his depression seems to have finally staunched
his creativity, and his previously prolific output virtually
ceased.
6. Charles Darwin – Agoraphobia?
Scholars still debate just exactly what problems Darwin
suffered from, but whatever they were, they were serious.
Despite his famed five year voyage on the Beagle (and the
publication it led to) making his career, Darwin was
virtually incapacitated the entire time. While he
concentrated on his physical symptoms as the cause of all
his suffering, the constant trembling, nausea, hysterical
crying, and visual hallucinations (among other things)
seem to have been mostly caused by a severe case of
agoraphobia that kept him virtually bedridden from the
time he turned thirty. Darwin’s fear of people meant he
would even avoid conversations with his own children,
writing, “I am forced to live… very quietly and am able to
see scarcely anybody and cannot even talk long with my
nearest relations.” In at least one letter he mentions
feeling like committing suicide due to the publication of On
the Origin of Species , the controversy over which caused
him much distress. He may have also suffered from OCD
and/or hypochondria, as he kept meticulous records of
every new or recurring symptom.
7. Winston Churchill – Bipolar Disorder?
Like Lincoln, Churchill was a great leader dealing not only
with international strife but his own mental struggles at
the same time. In his 30s, he complained to his friends
that he was hounded by the “black dog of depression.” He
sat in the Houses of Parliament and contemplated suicide.
Churchill told his doctor that he had to be careful where he
stood in a train station:
“I don't like standing near the edge of a platform when
an express train is passing through,” he told his
doctor. “I like to stand right back and if possible get a
pillar between me and the train. I don't like to stand
by the side of a ship and look down into the water. A
second's action would end everything. A few drops of
desperation.”
The black dog would follow him the rest of his life. When in
his mild manic phases he was personable, but his moods
could change quickly. During periods of high mania he
would stay up all night writing, eventually producing 43
books on top of attending to his political duties.
8. Vaslav Nijinsky – Schizophrenia?
While not well-known today, in the early 1900s, Nijinsky
was a household name. Considered the greatest male
dancer of his era, he was famous for his intense
performances, gigantic leaps, and ability to dance on his
toes (en pointe), something uncommon among male
dancers at the time. When he took to choreographing
ballets, his modern take on the dance led to a riot. By the
time Nijinsky was 26, the symptoms of his disease were
affecting his work. He spent the rest of his life in and out
of mental hospitals, often going weeks at a time without
saying a word.
9. Kurt Gödel – Persecutory Delusions?
Gödel was a brilliant logician and mathematician, as well
as a contemporary and great friend of Albert Einstein.
Einstein’s super-intelligence might have made him seem a
little odd to the average person, but he doesn’t seem to
have suffered from any actual mental illnesses. Gödel, on
the other hand, thought that someone was out to poison
him. He was so sure of this delusion, especially later in
life, that he would only eat food that his wife had cooked,
and usually made her taste it first, just to be sure. When
his wife was hospitalized for six months, Gödel simply
stopped eating and starved to death.
10. Leo Tolstoy – Depression?
Tolstoy did not suffer from obvious signs of depression
until middle age, but when it hit him, it hit hard. He went
through serious personality changes, questioning virtually
everything in his life. At times he debated giving away all
of his possessions, becoming celibate, and the nature of
his religious beliefs (or lack thereof). At one point he was
determined to give up writing altogether, saying, "art is not
only useless but even harmful.” Tolstoy is a perfect
example of someone who seemingly has everything
brought low by this disease: despite coming from a
wealthy family, being celebrated as an author, and being
father to 13 children, eventually his demons drove him to
seriously consider suicide. He wrote in one letter, “The
possibility of killing himself has been given to man, and
therefore he may kill himself.” Eventually Tolstoy pulled
himself out of this hole by becoming what we would now
consider a born-again Christian.
11. Isaac Newton – Everything?
One of the greatest scientists of all time is also the
hardest genius to diagnose, but historians agree he had a
lot going on. Newton suffered from huge ups and downs in
his moods, indicating bipolar disorder, combined with
psychotic tendencies. His inability to connect with people
could place him on the autism spectrum. He also had a
tendency to write letters filled with mad delusions, which
some medical historians feel strongly indicates
schizophrenia. Whether he suffered from one or a
combination of these serious illnesses, they did not stop
him from inventing calculus, explaining gravity, and
building telescopes, among his other great scientific
achievements.
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