Assignment: Find a figure from history that has been diagnosed with a mental illness/disorder, OR find a historical figure who is rumored to have a mental disorder, and compare with the diagnosis requirements found on the NIH website for the DSM V book. Cite at least two sources, provide one quote.
The person chosen for the paper must not be living in order to avoid rumors that could damage reputations or impair judgement!
If you choose a person who has not been officially diagnosed (their mental disorder has been rumored or diagnosed after their death) you must include in your paper whether or not you think the diagnosis was accurate or inaccurate.
If you choose a person who has been officially diagnosed, you must attempt to find the proof of diagnosis* (a doctor’s statement or something that explicitly states their diagnosis).
Write a paper on the historical figure of choice,
-One paragraph on the person (their backstory, illness, etc.),
-One on the disorder/illness, (You must compare and contrast DSM criteria with symptoms the person displayed)
-One paragraph on the impact the disorder made on the person (how did it affect their profession, their family, etc.).
You should have a well-structured, 5 paragraph total paper (Intro, 3 body, conclusion).
* If you cannot find any reliable sources that states or gives proof of a mental disorder, you must strongly argue your point, using many references from the historical figure’s life as well as from the NIH website on the rumored disorder.
Options for Historical Figures:
● Abraham Lincoln – melancholy (clinical depression)
● Virginia Woolf – bipolar disorder
● Vincent Van Gogh – bipolar disorder
● Charlotte Bronte – clinical depression
● Ernest Hemingway – bipolar disorder, paranoia, severe depression
● John Nash Jr. – schizophrenia
● Ludwig Van Beethoven – bipolar disorder
● Michaelangelo – asperger’s syndrome (autism)
● Winston Churchill – bipolar disorder
● Patty Duke – bipolar disorder
● Charles Dickens – bipolar disorder
● Leo Tolstoy – bipolar disorder
● Nikola Tesla – obsessive-compulsive disorder
● Wolfgang Mozart – adhd, manic depressive disorder, capgras’s syndrome, and more
● Charles Darwin – panic disorder
● Edvard Munch – neurasthenia
● Julius Caesar – depression
● Napoleon Bonaparte – hypochondriac
● Louis XIV of France – narcissistic traits
● Robert Louis Stevenson – hypochondria, dissociative disorder
● Nero – psychosis
● F. Scott Fitzgerald – depression
● Isaac Newton – psychosis
● Henry VIII of England – bipolar disorder
● Charles VI of France – glass delusion
● Joanna of Castile – schizophrenia, depression, psychosis, and possibly more
● Edgar Allen Poe – depression, bipolar disorder
● Zelda Fitzgerald – schizophrenia
● Albert Einstein – schizotypal traits
● John Lennon – obsessive-compulsive disorder