Sometimes it seems that a historical character It is not only engraved in our memory by its playsbut also for its personality.
There are plenty of examples; from artists to politicians, through scientists and royalty. They all went down in history for one or many concrete feats, but with them was also saved for posterity personality, since without her they could never have become who they were.
The most curious thing about all this is that, in many of these cases, that curious condition that differentiated them from the others has a scientific explanation that may not have been known at the time, but that over the years has helped us understand his behavior. Already in another of my reports I told you that The art and the science they should always travel together and, in the same way, today I am going to show you how science can contribute to understanding of history. And for you to check, today I am going to give you some examples of historical characters personalities explained by science.
Beethoven’s Bad Mood and the Danube Lead
If you look at any of the known portraits of BeethovenWe can see that he did not have the face of being a very friendly gentleman.
In addition, any of the films that exist about his life confirm this version, since they show a man tremendously irritable that, like a good beast, only seemed to tame with music.
However, in the documents of the time, whether from Beethoven himself or from any contemporary character, is not always described in that way, but everything seems to start in one late stage of your life.
All this, together with some studies in which the presence of traces of lead in the hair of the composer, they gather the necessary pieces to know what their personality is due to.
On the one hand, it is known that his diet was based primarily on fish and wine and that, at that time, the waters of the Danube, where do the fishes to eat, they were very contaminated with this heavy metal, which was also widely used to adulterate cheap wines (Yes, the Lord was very sensitive for music, but for wine he was less prissy).
This, therefore, will explain the lead poisoning, known as lead poisoning, which can cause a wide range of symptoms, including personality disorders and the loss of senses such as vision and hearing. Therefore, this would also explain why Beethoven stayed deaf in his last years of life, also coinciding with his stage of increased irritability.
Be that as it may, what is certain and does not need scientists to corroborate it is that Beethoven was one of the greatest geniuses of music who have trodden and will tread on this planet, since not even one lead poisoning He was able to prevent me from composing works as beautiful as this:
The cerebral contusion that could turn Henry VIII into a tyrant
Sometimes we are shocked by the scenes of Game of Thrones, but the truth is that in real life there were real tyrants in the purest Joffrey Baratheon style.
And if you don’t believe it, think of the poor Ana Bolena and Catalina Howardtwo of the six wives of Henry VIII, what were executed after the king decided that he was no longer needed.
It sounds harsh, but it is the harsh reality. Enrique VIII was a tyrant of the movies, but was he always like that? It seems it is not the case. According to a study carried out earlier this year in the Yale University, the written documents of the time show a very abrupt change in the personality of the English king, who began to show this type of instincts after a accident in a joust.
There is no exact way to find out, but it is very likely that the sovereign suffered a traumatic brain injuryas a result of blow to the head that knocked him unconscious for two hours.
Furthermore, aggressiveness is not the only factor that makes researchers lean towards this option, but there are many more. For example, it seems that after having one of his wives imprisoned, he asked his soldiers for her, alleging that he had not seen her in a long time. Likewise, the correspondence of Ana Bolena with her wife also shows that after the accident she began to experience erectile dysfunction, very frequent also in this type of disorders.
Therefore, if this king had lived in our days he would surely have been judged by his crimes, but the penalty could have been reduced by using mental illness as a mitigating factor. Who was going to say it, right?
Joan of Arc’s schizophrenia and her religious experiences
Joan of Arc was one of the most courageous women in all of history. Despite her status as a woman, who at that time only went to take care of the house and have children, she gained the trust of the french king, which allowed him to lead his army in the war against the English.
And where did he get the strength and self-confidence to be able to carry out such a feat? Well, according to her, of her conversations with God. The young woman claimed to have heard his voice on several occasions, so she confided her life to him, to the point that her last wish after the English condemned her to be executed at the stake was to die with a cross in front of the eyes.
All this earned him first the respect of his own executors and then the canonization, but we are going what we are going. Did Juana really speak to God?
Well, we are not going to decide to come here to destroy anyone’s faith, but the truth is that, in the absence of evidence, according to some experts, the way of acting of the young woman corresponds to that of the patients of paranoid schizophrenia; which, as you know, often claim hear voices. Also, also they tend to obsess with a specific topic, which may be related to auditory hallucinations, so it could be the reason for the eagerness to liberate his country.
In any case, whatever the reason that prompted her to do so, the only thing that is clear is that in the world there should be many more men and women like her, capable of fighting for what they believe, without bowing their heads to anyone. . We will all do much better.
The genius of Einstein and Asperger’s syndrome
As we have seen in other articles, the Asperger syndrome is one of the known as Autism Spectrum Disorders. Although the symptomatology may differ greatly from one case to another, in general these people tend to show no tie towards the feelings of others, problems for interact socially, restricted and repetitive interests and in many cases aintelligence well above average.
This has led to the opening of a great debate on the possibility that great scientists in history, such as Einstein or Newton, suffer from this disorder.
In the case of the first, some experts in psychology They claim that the well-known physicist was obsessed with science, passion, infatuation, and a sense of justice, showing great disinterestedness in anything that had nothing to do with it all. Furthermore, his sloppy way of dressing, who showed great disinters for the social conventions, and his fondness for question authority from a very young age they think that their genius could be related to the Asperger syndrome.
These are just a few of the many examples of characters in history whose personality can be explained by science, but they are more than enough to demonstrate what we have told you so many other times: that we should not divide ourselves into individuals How science or letters, but in people lives of knowledge.
