A Karger 'Publishing Highlights 1890–2015' title The study of how a neurological disorder can change the artistic activity and behavior of creative people is a largely unexplored field. This publication looks closer at famous painters, writers, composers and philosophers of the 18th to the 20th centuries who suffered from neurological diseases such as stroke, epilepsy, brain trauma and dementia. The diseases of Gershwin, Kant, Musorgsky, Poe, Ravel, Van Gogh and many more are diagnosed in retrospect and treatment options according to modern medical technologies are discussed.
Presenting fascinating insights into the relationship between brain disease and creativity in famous minds, this publication is highly recommended to neurologists, psychiatrists, physicians as well as to everybody interested in art, music and literature.
150 - 159: Georg Friedrich Händel’s Strokes
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Published:2005
H. Bäzner, M.G. Hennerici, 2005. "Georg Friedrich Händel’s Strokes", Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists, J. Bogousslavsky, F. Boller
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Abstract
Georg Friedrich Händel was a musical giant and probably the first composer to be themanager and promoter of his own works. The story of his life and his illnesses is full of myths,invented and embellished by various biographies. Existing pathographies written by authorsfrom various specialties suggested him having suffered from psychiatric diseases likecyclothymia or mania and rheumatologic disorders like arthritis, while others tended to interprethis recurrent palsies as typical sequelae of ischemic strokes. During his last years of life,Händel was struck with blindness, which in his era had been interpreted as being due tocataracts. This led to three ‘coucher’ operations, all of them without any lasting effect. Althougha definite diagnosis cannot be inferred from the original sources, the most plausible explanationfor Händel’s palsies and visual impairment may be based on one single context, i.e. cerebrovasculardisease. The possible differential diagnosis will be discussed in this paper.