Abstract
Few
musicians who suffered from any kind of serious neuropsychiatric
problems were able to create works that are still admired today. This
new research will show that Frédéric Chopin, who reinvented piano music
in the first half of the nineteenth century, was one of those few. He
died in Paris aged only 39. While the somatic illness that killed him
continues to generate speculation, his recurrent depressive mood swings
have remained largely unexamined. A few neuropsychiatric publications
make a simplistic effort to assign his emotional condition to a modern
diagnostic category, e.g., temporal lobe epilepsy. Because it is
impossible to prove such hypotheses, these studies are nothing more than
erudite speculation. This chapter will instead incorporate the cultural
and medical context of the first half of the nineteenth century in
order to explore new possibilities for medical biographies of musicians.
