Just how crazy was Tesla?

My local PBS (WNET NYC) ran a documentary on Nikola Tesla a couple of nights ago. It was mostly a rehashing of things already well known interspersed with some cool bits of old film footage and stills.

One thing that I had never heard of before, that they sort of glazed over, was fact that he “removed his sexuality” at the age of forty in order to minimize distractions while he was living in New York. This would be in the neighborhood of 1901-05.

I cannot find any reference to this on pbs.org’s companion site ( http://www.pbs.org/tesla/index.html ). Does anyone know what this disturbing little tidbit is a reference to?

He “removed his sexuality” with nothing more than his will power. At least according to this site. But he definitely was as nutty as a frit cake (with extra nuts on top).

Nutty, true. But no one can deny he made significant contributions to the field of AC/polyphase power distribution.

“Electrifying the Earth.” Uhhh… O.K.

Too bad he got bored with the conventional stuff.