Diagnosing Genius: The Life and Death of Beethoven

by François Martin Mai

Overview

Mai's experience as a physician and psychiatrist serves as a basis for his analysis. Working from the symptoms described in the medical evidence, Beethoven's letters and those of his friends, and the reports of his physicians, Mai compares how Beethoven's health complaints would have been understood and treated within the medical, political, and social climate of both his time and ours. He discusses Beethoven's terminal illness and the resulting autopsy report to consider the roles of alcohol, lead poisoning (based on the toxic levels in his hair), and syphilis in causing his death.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780773578791
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	02/09/2007
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

François Martin Mai is a medical adviser, human resources and social development, Government of Canada, a psychiatric consultant at The Ottawa Hospital, and a professor of psychiatry, University of Ottawa. He is also an amateur pianist. He lives in Ottawa