Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven, composer, had bipolar disorder which some have said gave him such creative power that his compositions broke the mold for classical music forever. He was a child prodigy which his father tried to exploit. His manic episodes seemed to fuel his creativity. He wrote his most famous works during times of torment, loneliness, and suffering psychotic delusions. It took him 12 years to finish his last and 8th Symphony in total deafness. He then medicated himself with the only drugs available in that day to bring some relief opium and alcoholand died several years later of liver disease.

Ernest Miller Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 July 2, 1961) was an American author and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works. Three novels, four collections of short stories, and three non-fiction works were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature. As a young boy, Ernest showed deep interest in the hobbies of his father. They included fishing, hunting, and studying literature. His relationship with his mother was quite different. She dressed him in girls clothing and introduced him as Ernestine. She abused his father and in the end committed suicide. All in all his relationship with his mother was not remotely ideal. Throughout his life Hemingway was obsessed with death. When he was young he would go hunting and fly fishing with his father witnessing the death of small game and later larger. He took part in World War I and World War II witnessing the death of his own kind right before his eyes. Not to mention the suicide that ran in his family. Both parents committed suicide. His mother as previously stated and his father shot himself in the head with a pistol later in life. Ernest became and excessive drinker and became diabetic with liver failure, quickly tearing down his mental state. HIs view of life became that of a dark passage leading nowhere. Hemingways mental deterioration most likely began after his participation in World War I and World War II. Upon his return home he suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder. He depicts these feeling through the characters in his novel The Sun Also Rises; a group of ex-patriots suffer with the meaning of life and where to find true happiness.

In the 1950s Hemingway traveled to Africa on a safari. While there he fell victim to two plane crashes. The accidents left him with numerous severe wounds. He had a sprained shoulder, arm, and leg, a severe concussion, a temporary loss of sight in his left eye and hearing in the left ear, a ruptured liver, spleen, and kidney, and first degree burns on his skin. The physical pain resulting from these life threatening crashes caused Ernest to begin losing his mind. Hemingway, like many other literary figures, was diagnosed with varying mental disorders including bipolar disorder, insomnia, paranoia, amnesia, and depression. Bipolar disorder is also known as manic depression. It is classified by severe high and low mood swings. Manic represents the overly excited moods and depressive represents the severe low moods of sadness and depression. The depressive side of this disorder is the side that is generally more prominent. Some studies show the cause of bipolar disorder as being genetic and others as resulting from severe changes in life like stress and neurological changes. It is estimated that around 60% of those suffering from this disorder have severe drug and/or alcohol dependence. The primary source of treatment is through medications. There is yet to be a definite cure for this neurological disorder. Another one of Hemingways disorders was insomnia.Insomnia is a sleep disorder which consists of difficulty falling and staying asleep. There are two different types of insomnia, primary and secondary. Primary insomnia entails sleep impairments not related to other heath conditions; secondary insomnia entails sleep impairments due to other health problems, medications, or substance abuse (such as alcohol). The causes of insomnia are major stress, emotional and/or physical discomfort, environmental factors (like noise or light), medications, and depression and/or anxiety to name a few. There are no definite cures for everyone because all cases are different. It is suggested to engage in regular sleeping habits or to take sleeping medication for only a period of time. Hemingways paranoia consisted of thinking the FBI would come after him if Cuba was turned over to the Russians.

He also thought that federal agents were constantly checking his bank account and trying to arrest him for immorality and carrying alcohol. Ernest received electro shock therapy for his depression and paranoia. Electro shock therapy consists of sending bolts of electric shocks to the nerves to stimulate them. Today the shocks are of very low voltage; however, the electro shock therapy received by Hemingway caused him severe pain physically and emotionally. He would return home crying and begging not to have to return. In the end all of this became too much to bear. Ernest had absolutely no strength left to continue fighting his mental impairments or to continue living. Everyone has their breaking point. He felt as though thing would never get better and that he would be happier without his pain and the suffering of his everyday life. Ernest attempted suicide in the spring of 1961 but his attempt failed. He was sent to receive more therapy in hopes of improvement. All of these efforts proved to be futile on July 21, 1961 when Hemingway successfully committed suicide.