Mental Disorders of the Poet Friedrich Hölderlin

Overview

The poet Friedrich Hölderlin was considered according to reports of physicians, friends andrelatives, from the age of 34 years to his death at the age of 73 years to be a person displayingabnormal mental features.Pierre Bertaux ascribed reports on Hölderlin™s mental state to his life history and to the maintraumatizing events. He reached the conclusion, that Hölderlin simulated intentionally, retiredand lived in seclusion. This view, however, does not hold.Wilhelm Lange-Eichbaum was convinced that Hölderlin suffered from dementia praecox.Uwe Henrik Peters revealed that the clinical picture and development of Hölderlin™s disorders isquite identical with the rare schizophasia described by Kraepelin.The simple post-mortem findings of the brain was as yet not evaluated and subsequent scientificadvances were foreseen. Post-mortem examination revealed a large ventriculus septi pellucidi,filled with fluid. The walls were thickened and firm. The cavity which was big enough to holda male thumb must have exerted considerable pressure. Beyond doubt, the cyst must have pres-sed on the septum ferum and the region of the nucleus accumbens septi, perhaps also on thecaput and rostrum corp. callosi. The septum verum forms a small convolution - the gyrus parater-minalis. The latter contains a group of nuclei. The afferent fibres into the septum verum originatein the hippocampus and hypothalamus, the corpus amygdaloideum and the reticular formation.The efferent fibres run in the same direction and then into the thalamus and habenula. Asapparent from animal experiments and investigations of some subjects with cysts of the septumpellucidum which exert pressure in this area, this may cause emotional changes, excitation,anxiety, rage, headache. It has an impact on social behaviour and also on mechanisms of short-term memory. By the bare eye in Hölderlin™s brain no other deviations were found, not evensclerotic vascular changes.It is beyond doubt that this described and reliably assessed abnormality could have participatedin a marked way in Hölderlin™s mental condition.

Key words:
Friedrich Hölderlin, schizophasia, cyst of the septum pellucidum, gyrus paraterminalis.