Ludwig Van Beethoven is one of the greatest composers and musicians in history. He was a creative genius regardless of being deaf most of his life. He had a way with music and was very talented and gifted. It seems like being creative and considered gifted goes along with suffering from mental illness. This renowned composer had a variety of illnesses throughout his life, most notably deafness, but one psychiatrist theorizes that Beethoven may have suffered from bipolar disorder as well.
His manic episodes were usually characterized by a persistent, abnormally elevated mood, often including distractibility and an increase in goal-directed activity. This could be seen in Beethoven’s tendency to go on worryingly long composing sprees, often working on multiple pieces of music simultaneously. During these periods, his confidence and energy levels increased, and he would sometimes refuse to join his friends for supper because he did not wish to be disturbed from his work.
In correspondence, Beethoven also described the depression that he would suffer through for weeks at a time. He was plagued by thoughts of death, and in 1802, he wrote to a friend begging for “but one more day of pure joy.” These periods fall under the DSM’s description of major depressive episodes. Having experienced both elevated and depressive periods shows that he may in fact had suffered from Bipolar disorder. Some medical historians and psychiatrists have hypothesized that he experienced bipolar or cyclothymic tendencies, though other psychiatric reviews find a clear episodic mood disorder difficult to definitively prove.
He is also thought to suffer from these other illnesses:
Alcohol Use Disorder: Modern psychiatric assessments indicate he met the criteria for problematic alcohol use later in life, which likely worsened his physical deterioration.
Severe Physical Ailments: He dealt with agonizing chronic abdominal pain, gastrointestinal issues, and eventual liver disease (cirrhosis), alongside high levels of lead toxicity found in recent hair DNA analyses.
Personality Traits: Contemporaries described him as intensely suspicious, egocentric, and perfectionist, traits amplified by the extreme frustration of losing his hearing.
While the importance of psychoanalytic contributions to the understanding of music in general and the biography and works of Beethoven in particular is acknowledged, the focus of the following is on a possible psychiatric diagnosis of Beethoven, notably the placement of Beethoven on the affective continuum between temperament and full-blown bipolar disorder.
To better understand what kind of person and famous artist he was, it can be interesting to look at the encounter between two celebrities of this time period and at their mutual assessment (as described by Caeyers. Such an encounter took place between July 19 and 26, 1812, in Teplitz (today Teplice, Czech Republic) between Ludwig van Beethoven (41 years old) and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (62 years old).
Goethe wrote about Beethoven:
“He is unfortunately, quite an untamed personality. On the other hand, he is very much to be excused and very much to be pitied, since his hearing is leaving him, which is probably less detrimental to the musical part of his nature than to the sociable. He, who is of a laconic nature anyway, now becomes doubly so through this deficiency.”
To sum up, Goethe describes Beethoven as “condensed, untamed, energetic and intimate”, confirming the main characteristics of the hyperthymic temperament. It is interesting that Beethoven was described by Goethe as laconic. While some hyperthymics can show joviality, talkativeness, and tendency to repeat themselves, Beethoven clearly was different, at least on this particular occasion of meeting Goethe.
In summary, from a psychiatric point of view, Beethoven can most definitely be diagnosed with alcohol use disorder. A pronounced hyperthymic temperament may have had a clear positive influence on the course of the disease. In particular, no effect of the alcohol use disorder on the musical quality of the work can be proven. A clear episodic course of affective symptoms as in bipolar disorder is probable but not detectable. The deafness caused a severe reduction in quality of life.
Beethoven was a creative and musical genius regardless of his acquired deafness. His experience with extreme highs and lows in his mood and temperament throughout his life suggest Bipolar disorder was something he struggled with although this was not defined as a disorder in his lifetime and it cannot be definitely be proven that he suffered from this disease.
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