Christiane vs. Goethe's final illness

Abstract

This paper deals with the diseases of Christiane, Goethe's wife, during the period of their marriage (1806-1816). Recurrent stomach complaints, due perhaps to gastro-duodenitis or an ulcer, were, it is suggested, of psychosomatic origin. They might have resulted from an intrinsic conflict between Christiane's unsatisfied desire for nearness and Goethe's absolute insistence on periods of distance and seclusion for the sake of his creative work. In contrast to this, Christiane's final illness was organic in nature. Contemporary records clearly indicate that she was suffering, not from suspected cerebrovascular accidents, but from the late form of symptomatic epilepsy with single grand mal seizures documented in 1815. In May/June 1816 these gave way to a series of grand mal seizures continuing into a malignant grand mal state, from which she never recovered. Pathogenetic aspects of the disease, allowing for the hypothesis of a latent infantile cerebral paresis together with the proven alcohol consumption are discussed and, in particular, the reasons why the correct diagnosis has been missed by posterity, even though it was clearly pointed out by Möbius as long ago as 1903. It is suggested that persistent irrational and unobjective prejudices relating to epilepsy, to Christiane's personality and last but not least to Möbius' pathographic approach have, up to the present, led to a dismissal of the true diagnosis of Christiane v. Goethe's final illness.