L'estro e la pazzia

One Response to “Schumann insane? Are you nuts?”

One Response to “Schumann insane? Are you nuts?”

Magliozzi, JR, M.D., A.B.P.N., Says:
May 12th, 2009 at 7:15 pm 17.02, Tuesday, 12 May, 2009

Evidence that the composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856) met current diagnostic criteria for Bipolar I or II disorder.

Magliozzi, JR, M.D., A.B.P.N., Rio Rancho, NM, U.S.A.

The questions regarding the ailment which plagued Robert Schumann’s life and which ultimately took it I find puzzling as its nature is fairly clear.
(Wikipedia, for example, asserts that Schumann died of syphilis or the complications of its standard treatment of the day, mercury salts1). The article “Schumann insane? Are you nuts?” by Mark Pennell alluding to the notion that Schumann had a mental disorder, which was concealed by his wife and Joseph Joachim, but on the insistence of Johannes Brahms, was brought out into the open represents the true story. (Brahms and Clara had several vociferous arguments over Schumann’s mental disorder, as well as Clara’s practice of censoring many of his works, not only the violin concerto, but in particular the ‘4’th’ symphony in d minor, whose opus number of 120 does not reflect the fact that it was first in composition, but not published until his wife’s, Clara, considerable revisions were incorporated, about ten years later.)
The work of many, quite adequately analyzed and summarized by Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison in her chapter on “Creativity, Leadership, Social Class and Bipolar Disorder”2 in the seminal academic work on bipolar disorder, edited by Fredrick K. Goodwin, M.D. and Dr. Jamison, make a convincing case for Maestro Schumann’s lifelong diathesis to bipolar disorder, by establishing his plunge into the Rhine as a suicide attempt, from which he was rescued, to quotations from the daily notes from the asylum in Düsseldorf in which he was placed thereafter, one of the most progressive in Europe at the time, and to which modern psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health workers owe much as a pioneer in modern diagnostic thinking and criteria. Dr. Jamison even presents a table correlating the opus numbers of his works with the year of authorship, demonstrating a striking periodicity of output correlating well with his own, his wife’s and his colleagues’ observations of manic and depressive behavior and ideation, including the so-called ‘Symphonic Year’ of 1840, in which was very productive, and during which his own letters revealed frankly hypomanic ideation. Maestro Schumann was often quite insightful regarding his affliction, attesting to which I refer the reader to his comments about his Symphony No. 2 in C, Op. 61, as cited in Dr. Jamison’s chapter as well as the liner notes of a Deutche Gramophone recording of his symphonies, two previously unrecorded ’symphoniettas’, several works for solo and soli French horn, and both versions of the Symphony No. 4 in d, a hitherto unperformed version of very early origin and the Op. 120. As a personal observation, may I add that Ms. Schumann (née Clara Wieke) sacrificed her own promising and gender barrier-breaking career as a virtuoso pianist and composer to assist, set limits for and act as a devoted therapist for her husband, a story of self-sacrifice that begs for elucidation in its own right.
1. Wikipedia, Robert Schumann, “After 1850”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Schumann, 2009.
2. Goodwin, F. K. and Jamison, K. R.: Manic-Depressive Illness: Bipolar Disorders and Recurrent Depression, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, 2007.