Laura Eggertson
Nearly two centuries after Ludwig van Beethoven’s death, a University of Ottawa psychiatrist has diagnosed the composer and pianist with bipolar disorder, alcoholism and lead poisoning.
Of course, Dr. François Mai did not invite Beethoven’s ghost in for analysis. But using Beethoven’s letters, in which he frequently described symptoms, and by referring to an analysis performed at Chicago’s McCrone Research Institute on a lock of Beethoven’s hair, Mai was able to deduce the probable causes of much of Beethoven’s suffering.
When he began his research, Mai, like most people, knew that Beethoven was deaf.
After reading Beethoven’s letters, his autopsy and the hair analysis, Mai discovered deafness was only one of a multitude of the composer’s symptoms, which included gastrointestinal illnesses, problems with his eyes and breathing, and his mental health.
During six years of research, Mai, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine, catalogued Beethoven’s symptoms and assigned each to a system in the body. He was then able to make his diagnosis. He was most surprised about the diagnosis of bipolar disorder, because of the composer’s continued creativity.
“He certainly had recurrent depression, because at times he became quite suicidal,” Mai says. “He likely had high hypomanic spells as well, so he would fit in the category of what we would now call bipolar disorder.”
The lead poisoning likely occurred towards the end of Beethoven’s life, and probably came from the wine he liked to drink, says Mai. Since Beethoven’s autopsy showed cirrhosis of the liver, Mai deduced that the lead poisoning likely caused the colic and gastrointestinal problems that Beethoven experienced.
Beethoven, who lived from 1771 to 1827, saw many physicians throughout his 56 years. If Beethoven was Mai’s patient today, he would help him to stop drinking and offer him mood- stabilizing drugs. He might even be able to refer Beethoven to surgery that could have saved his hearing. Does that mean we would have seen Beethoven at rehab and on Prozac?
Actually, says Mai, many highly creative people who suffer from bipolar or other mood disorders opt not to take medication in order to remain creative – as long as they have a mild form of the disease.
The Ottawa psychiatrist, who has retired from clinical practice, has written about his research in Diagnosing Genius: The Life and Death of Beethoven, published by McGill- Queen’s Press. The book, which took him six years to write and research, is the first readable account of the composer’s medical problems and examination of how they affected his creativity, says Mai.
