# Who are some famous people in history who had retrospective diagnosis for their illnesses **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 25, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531 "2013-07-25T23:00:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/21 "2013-07-26T21:53:02Z")
Not famous himself, but made famous by his son’s acts, was Patrick Stewart’s father. He had a history of violence & depression following WWII which has now been diagnosed as PTSD, resulting in his son beginning to work with groups providing treatment for returning war veterans, in addition to the work he’s been doing for shelters for battered women. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/22 "2013-07-26T22:06:14Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > [Sybil](http://relievemypain.blogspot.com/2011/11/sybil-multiple-personality-hoax-or.html), real name Shirley Mason, apparently had a case ofPernicious Anemia, not multiple personality disorder. And her mother was not abusive as was described in the book. It was a horrible breach of journalistic and medical ethics. > **[Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality...](https://www.amazon.com/Sybil-Exposed-Extraordinary-Multiple-Personality/dp/1439168288)** > > Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case \[Nathan, Debbie\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/23 "2013-07-26T23:32:28Z")
I have a book that says that the problems with the Tudor royalty, starting with Henry VIII, were probably caused by some form of syphilis. On the hypothesis that he had syphilis & gave it to his wives, it could account for the numerous miscarriages that his wives had, the sickly nature of Edward VI, and Mary’s infertility & dementia. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/24 "2013-07-27T17:54:46Z")
There is a cottage industry of speculation about Mozart’s death > [@](#): > > from [Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart) > > The cause of Mozart’s death cannot be known with certainty. The official record has it as “hitziges Frieselfieber” (“severe miliary fever”, referring to a rash that looks like millet seeds), a description that does not suffice to identify the cause as it would be diagnosed in modern medicine. Researchers have posited at least 118 causes of death, including trichinosis, influenza, mercury poisoning, and a rare kidney ailment.[73] One of the most widely accepted hypotheses is that Mozart died of acute rheumatic fever.[73][74] Also the pharaoh Akhenaten > [@](#): > > from [Akhenaten - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhenaten) > > [Note: I added some paragraph breaks to make it easier to read – mbh] > > The rather strange and eccentric portrayals of Akhenaten, with a sagging stomach, thick thighs, larger breasts, and long, thin face — so different from the athletic norm in the portrayal of Pharaohs — has led certain Egyptologists to suppose that Akhenaten suffered some kind of genetic abnormality. Various illnesses have been put forward. On the basis of his longer jaw and his feminine appearance, Cyril Aldred[78] suggested he may have suffered from Froelich’s Syndrome. However, this is unlikely because this disorder results in sterility and Akhenaten is known to have fathered numerous children — these children are repeatedly portrayed through years of archaeological and iconographic evidence — at least six daughters by Queen Nefertiti, well known as the King and Queen’s six princesses of Amarna, as well as his successor Tutankhamen by a minor wife.[citation needed]. > > Another suggestion by Burridge[79] is that Akhenaten may have suffered from Marfan’s Syndrome. Marfan’s syndrome, unlike Froelich’s, does not result in any lack of intelligence or sterility. It is associated with a sunken chest, long curved spider-like fingers (arachnodactyly), occasional congenital heart difficulties, a high curved or slightly cleft palate, and a highly curved cornea or dislocated lens of the eye, with the requirement for bright light to see well. Marfan’s sufferers tend towards being taller than average, with a long, thin face, and elongated skull, overgrown ribs, a funnel or pigeon chest, and larger pelvis, with enlarged thighs and spindly calves.[80] Marfan’s syndrome is a dominant characteristic, and sufferers have a 50% chance of passing it on to their children.[81] All of these symptoms arguably sometimes appear in depictions of Akhenaten and of his children. Recent CT scans of Tutankhamun report a cleft palate and a fairly long head, as well as an abnormal curvature of the spine and fusion of the upper vertebrae, a condition associated with scoliosis, all conditions associated with Marfan’s syndrome. However, DNA tests on Tutankhamun, in 2010, proved negative for Marfan Syndrome.[82][dead link][83] > > More recently, Homocystinuria was suggested as a possible diagnosis.[84] Patients suffering from homocystinuria have Marfan habitus, however, as an autosomal recessive disease it seems to fit better into Akhenaten’s family tree - Akhenaten’s parents, Amenhotep III and Tiye, were most probably healthy, and Marfan Syndrome was ruled out following DNA tests on Tutankhamun in 2010.[82] > > However, Dominic Montserrat in Akhenaten: History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt states that “there is now a broad consensus among Egyptologists that the exaggerated forms of Akhenaten’s physical portrayal… are not to be read literally”.[63] Montserrat and others[85] argue that the body-shape relates to some form of religious symbolism. Because the god Aten was referred to as “the mother and father of all humankind” it has been suggested that Akhenaten was made to look androgynous in artwork as a symbol of the androgyny of the god. This required “a symbolic gathering of all the attributes of the creator god into the physical body of the king himself”, which will “display on earth the Aten’s multiple life-giving functions”.[63] Akhenaten did refer to himself as “The Unique One of Re”, and he may have used his control of artistic expression to distance himself from the common people, though such a radical departure from the idealised traditional representation of the image of the Pharaoh would be truly extraordinary. > > Another claim was made by Immanuel Velikovsky, who hypothesized an incestuous relationship with his mother, Tiye. Velikovsky also posited that Akhenaten had elephantiasis, producing enlarged legs. Based on this, he identified Akhenaten as the history behind the Oedipus myth, Oedipus being Greek for “swollen feet”, and moved the setting from the Greek Thebes to the Egyptian Thebes. As part of his argument, Velikovsky uses the fact that Akhenaten viciously carried out a campaign to erase the name of his father, which he argues could have developed into Oedipus killing his father. This point seems to be disproved, however, in that Akhenaten in fact mummified and buried his father in the honorable traditional Egyptian fashion prior to beginning his monotheistic revolution.[86] > In the same 1960 work, Oedipus and Akhnaton, Velikovsky not only saw Akhenaten as the origin of Oedipus, but also identified him with a Pharaoh mentioned only in Herodotus, “Analysis of the city of the same name” — Akhenaten of Akhetaten. Like Oedipus, Anysis was blinded, deposed and exiled. > > Recently a surgeon at Imperial College London (Dr Hutan Ashrafian) has analysed the early death of Akhenaten and the premature deaths of other Eighteenth dynasty Pharaohs (including Tutankhamun and Thutmose IV). He identifies that their early deaths was likely as a result of a Familial Temporal Epilepsy. This would account for the untimely mortality in Akhenaten, his abnormal endocrine body shape on sculptures and can also explain Akhenaten’s religious conviction due to this type of epilepsy’s association with intense spiritual visions and religiosity.[87] I think Velikovsky’s nuttery can be safely ignored, but the other speculations are interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/25 "2013-07-27T19:23:52Z")
Ernest Hemingway: hemochromatosis. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/26 "2013-07-27T19:41:33Z")
Jane Austen - probably Addison’s Disease. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/27 "2013-07-27T23:37:07Z")
Some medical historians believe that many of the people who had the Biblical “leprosy” actually had syphilis. President Taft: sleep apnea and Type II diabetes. Mental health reformer Clifford Beers and mid-century health reporter Paul de Kruif, author of “Microbe Hunters”, published in 1927 and still in print: Bipolar disorder, and how. ---
**Author:** ![OtisCampbellWasRight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d78d45/32.png) [@OtisCampbellWasRight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtisCampbellWasRight)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/28 "2013-07-29T19:14:57Z")
Nicola Tesla, the fellow who pretty much invented the technique used for multiple-phase transmission of electrical power, suffered from Obsessive Compusive Disorder. He could not enter a building without first walking around it three times, and had many other similiar odd habits. In his time, he was just thought of as “quirky.” ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/29 "2013-08-01T01:48:25Z")
[The Master theorizes about King Herod.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/196/what-loathsome-disease-did-king-herod-die-of) ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/30 "2013-08-01T02:29:00Z")
Edward VI - Tuberculosis ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/31 "2013-08-01T04:51:22Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > Ernest Hemingway: hemochromatosis. I thought it was acute lead poisoning that done him in, not iron poisoning. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/32 "2013-08-01T05:29:42Z")
> [@OtisCampbellWasRight](#): > > Nicola Tesla, the fellow who pretty much invented the technique used for multiple-phase transmission of electrical power, suffered from Obsessive Compusive Disorder. He could not enter a building without first walking around it three times, and had many other similiar odd habits. In his time, he was just thought of as “quirky.” He’s also believed to have had Asperger syndrome. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/33 "2013-08-01T05:51:05Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Hitler is now thought to have been a tertiary syphilitic-this would explain his erratic behavior after 1941. Of course, his personal physician was also poisoning him with a weird cocktail of drugs, stimulants, and vitamins. A more likely explanation is that he had a classic case of Parkinson’s disease, which would account for his rapid physical and mental deterioration after 1941, Dr Morrell’s “medications” notwithstanding. There is virtually no credible evidence that Hitler ever had illicit sex during his time in Vienna, while serving in WWI, or at any other point in his life (though some of the women he attached himself to, notably his niece Geli, did hint that he was capable of some pretty deviant acts). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/34 "2013-08-01T10:04:01Z")
Could he have had syphilis from birth? ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/35 "2013-08-01T13:09:03Z")
What about biblical Abraham? What would compel a guy to climb a mountain with his infant son and come -this- close to snuffing him? Schizophrenia? I’ve also often wondered what the lasting physiological and psychological effects of living the life of a Spartan were. PTSD for sure. Stress fractures of the bones were probably par for the course. What else? ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/36 "2013-08-01T13:32:58Z")
> [@Mk\_VII](#): > > Jane Austen - probably Addison’s Disease. Although there is a breast cancer lobby (I think its a weak case, from her letters there really isn’t anything breast cancerish about her symptoms. Notably, the biographer that believes this is a breast cancer survivor - I think its projection myself). The aforementioned Alison Weir also postulates that Anne Boleyn was Rh negative - she had one healthy child, followed by miscarriages - including a son. If so, that would have been a root cause of her death - had that son come to term, its unlikely she would have been put to death (she may have been shipped off - she was also becoming a political liability). ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/37 "2013-08-01T13:46:24Z")
> [@OtisCampbellWasRight](#): > > Nicola Tesla, the fellow who pretty much invented the technique used for multiple-phase transmission of electrical power, suffered from Obsessive Compusive Disorder. He could not enter a building without first walking around it three times, and had many other similiar odd habits. In his time, he was just thought of as “quirky.” Many, many, many odd habits, most of which are glossed over by the dewy-eyed worshippers. Margaret Cheney mentioned, rather charmingly, how he obsessively computed the cubic volume of food he ate. What she omits is that he also calculated his, uh, cubic output; it was an exercise in dietary efficiency. And nonsense, like almost everything in his life after about 1910. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/38 "2013-08-01T14:11:51Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > From the wallpaper? Really? The last thing I heard was they thought it was in his only-I-get-to-drink-this wine, because no one else in his household displayed the same symptoms (or died). Obviously, I’ve not been keeping up with the CTs. There was a [shade of green](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheele%27s_Green) popular at the time that had arsenic as one if its main components. And it was apparently even more dangerous to _remove_ said wallpaper. I don’t actually have any entries of my own, I was just really excited that I knew about the wallpaper. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/39 "2013-08-01T15:19:19Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > A more likely explanation is that he had a classic case of Parkinson’s disease, which would account for his rapid physical and mental deterioration after 1941, Dr Morrell’s “medications” notwithstanding. There is virtually no credible evidence that Hitler ever had illicit sex during his time in Vienna, while serving in WWI, or at any other point in his life (though some of the women he attached himself to, notably his niece Geli, did hint that he was capable of some pretty deviant acts). What I read was that Dr. Morrell (who was a dermatologist) misinterpreted the results of the commonly used test for syphilis at that time. Hitler started going into shouting fits of rage, in late 1941 (when the German Army was tasting its first defeats in Russia). What is amazing-when Hitler took over supreme command of the armed forces, his top generals knew that he was incompetent - yet there was no will to remove him. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2013, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531/40 "2013-08-01T15:21:32Z")
I’m reading [The Last Place on Earth](http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Last_Place_on_Earth.html?id=5FCm9wMbKQkC) right now. I’m beginning to wonder whether Scott had severe bi-polar disorder. > [@Shodan](#): > > [QUOTE=sahirrnee] > Edgar Allen Poe was thought to have died from alcoholism but now it’s believed to have been rabies. Talk about “hair of the dog that bit you”. Regards, Shodan [/QUOTE] Bravo, sir. I will submit to you the bill for the cleaning of tea stains out of my shirt. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-in-history-who-had-retrospective-diagnosis-for-their-illnesses/664531.md?page=3)