Charles Darwin's illness
Unending speculation
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"Some modern medical historians with a psychoanalytic bent have found "a wealth of evidence that unmistakably points" to the idea that Darwin's illness was "a distorted expression of the aggression, hate, and resentment felt, at an unconscious level, by Darwin towards his tyrannical father". One suggests that his turning to science was mainly the consequence of "reaction to sadomasochistic fantasies concerning his own birth and his mother's death". Another explains how in dethroning his Heavenly Father Darwin found solace for being unable to slay his earthly one. Attention has further been drawn to a continuous preoccupation on the part of Darwin with matters to do with sex. Revealing himself as a master ironist,Peter Medawar remarks on this last point:"We need look no further than the titles of his books: The Origin itself, of course; Selection in Relation to Sex; The Effects of Cross- and Self-Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom; and On the Various Contrivanoes by which Orchids are Fertilized by Insects. With so great a load of guilt, need we wonder that at the age of 33 Darwin should have retired from public life to live in quiet seclusion in the country? It was a sacrificial gesture, even a crucifixion: and Kempf calls attention to the inner significance of the fact that it was at the age of 33 that Christ himself was crucified." Editorial (1964) Darwin's Illness Canad Med Ass J 51:1371-2 |
Many books and papers have tried to explain Darwin’s illness as organic or psychosomatic, including arsenic poisoning, typhoid, Chagas’ disease(Darwin had described being bitten by Reduviid bugs while crossing the Andes)[1] [2], multiple allergy, hypochondria, panic disorder with agorophobia [3]repressed anger towards his father;[4] stress; [5]Crohn's disease; [6].or bereavement syndrome. His medical history shows he had an organic problem, exacerbated by depression. According to Campbell and Mathews (2005)[7], all Darwin’s symptoms match systemic lactose intolerance; in particular, vomiting and gut problems showed up two to three hours after a meal, the time it takes for lactose to reach the large intestine, and his family history shows a major inherited component, as with genetically predisposed hypolactasia. Darwin only got better when, by chance, he stopped taking milk and cream.
- ↑ Chagas Disease Claimed an Eminent Victim. The New York Times, June 15, 1989.
- ↑ Bernstein RE ( ) Darwin's disease: Chagas disease resurges J R Soc Med [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1439957&blobtype=pdf 77:608-
- ↑ Barloon TJ, Noyes R (1997) Charles Darwin and panic disorder JAMA 277:
- ↑ Pasnau RO (1990) Darwin's illness: a biopsychosocial perspective Psychosomatics 1990; 31:121-128
- ↑ Paul Martin The sickening mind: brain, behaviour, immunity and disease. Harper Collins ISBN 0002556839, reviewed by Richard Mayou in Darwin's dual disease for Times Higher Education
- ↑ Darwin's illness: a final diagnosis. "We have concluded that he suffered from Crohn's disease, located mainly in his upper small intestine. This explains his upper abdominal pain, his flatulence and vomiting, as well as his articular and neurological symptoms, his 'extreme fatigue', low fever and especially the chronic, relapsing course of his illness that evolved in bouts, did not affect his life expectancy and decreased with old age, and also the time of life at which it started. It apparently does not explain, however, many of his cutaneous symptoms."
- ↑ Campbell AK, Matthews SB (2005)Darwin’s illness revealed Postgraduate Medical Journal 81:248-251