Talking of Michelangelo

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/dispatch/story/0,12978,1225008,00.html

Talking of Michelangelo

Thursday May 27, 2004

The Guardian

Michelangelo may have suffered from Asperger's disorder or higher

functioning autism. That's according to Muhammad Arshad, of Whiston

Hospital, Prescott, Merseyside, and Fitzgerald of Trinity College

Dublin, who offer a retrospective diagnosis in the Journal of Medical

Biography.

The painter of the Sistine Chapel, and sculptor of and the sublime

Pieta, found relationships difficult, Dr Arshad writes. " He was a loner,

self-absorbed and gave his undivided attention to his masterpieces - a

feature of autism. " He was also " paranoid, narcissistic and schizoid " .

Autopsy on indirect evidence is a favourite medical sport. In 2001, American

neuroscientists diagnosed Samson, the biblical strongman, with antisocial

personality disorder (he killed 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of an

ass, collecting their foreskins as trophies). Doctors have killed off Herod

the Great with chronic kidney disease and gangrene, identified the eye

condition ocular tortiocollis in the Great, diagnosed piles in

Alfred the Great, and endowed President Lincoln with Marfan syndrome.

Dr Arshad says that Michelangelo tried to control his staff, his family,

money, time and " much else " . His eating habits, sleep patterns and obsession

with work were erratic. Medical examiners early in the last century noted

his pathological fears and morbid melancholy; one expert described

Michelangelo as a " depressive, schizoid, bionegative person with paranoid

traces, with a homosexual tendency " . If Michelangelo had Asperger's syndrome

instead, he would be in good company. According to the two scientists,

fellow sufferers would include the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and Isaac

Newton.