Edgar Allan Poe Psychopathology and Mystery

Edgar Allan Poe is for many the best horror writer and mystery of the nineteenth century. Like so many other authors, his work was not recognized in life. Economic hardships passed and led an unfortunate life. He suffered mental disorders, which decisively influenced his work. His poem "El Cuervo" and some of his stories such as "The Black Cat", "The Pozo and the Pendulum" or "The fall of the Usher House" are considered masterpieces of the horror genre. Edgar Allan Poe is the flag bearer of the Gothic subcultural movement.

Content

• Childhood
• Youth: An unstable character
• Happiness lasts little
• A mysterious death
• Poe's alcohol in the life
• Was Edgar Allan Poe Epileptic?
• Bipolar disorder
• Theories about his death

Childhood

Little could, David Poe and his young wife Elisabeth Arnold, that the baby who had just been born, should be considered by the coming generations, as a teacher of the literary genre of terror.

Young parents were fans of theater. They represented "King Lear" by William Shakespeare, at a Boston theater. For this reason, that cold January 19, 1809, they did not hesitate to put the creature that had just been born, under the sign of Capricorn, the name of one of the protagonists of the work: Edgar.

Years later, the great French poet Baudelaire, wrote that Edgar Allan Poe was born with the sign of misfortune, recorded on his forehead. A year after his father was born he left the family. Soon, his mother died of tuberculosis. Edgar was orphaned, next to his two brothers. The older brother was adopted by his grandparents in Baltimore. Edgar went on to live with Jhon Alan and Frances, a marriage of Richmond. These were friends with another marriage, who welcomed his little sister.

In this family, he spent the best years of his life. Although they welcomed him, they did not adopt him. Yes they gave him his last name and was renamed Edgar Allan Poe. At six years of age Edgar moved with his new family to England. He first lived in Scotland and later in London. At 11 he returned to the United States again. Over there He received an education in the best schools.

"The Black Cat" one of its most famous stories

Youth: An unstable character

In the diverse boarding schools he passed, he soon showed his qualities as a writer. He also exhibited A strong impulsive character. He was unstable in his mood, irritable and content to excessive alcohol consumption.

Alcohol caused him not a few problems and was one of the reasons why he broke relations with his stepfather, after being expelled from a school and the West Point Military Academy. His mother seriously ill, but his stepfather, angry with him, did not warn him of death until after the burial. Poe reached the tomb of his stepmother and fell faded by pain.

He went to live with an aunt, He fell in love with his cousin, Virginia Clemm, and married her In secret, falsifying the documentation, as her cousin was only 13 years old. At twenty -two, I already wrote short stories impregnated with horror and fantasy. Your inconstancy at work, the Drink fondness caused frequent dismissals And jobs were happening in different newspapers and magazines. He lived with economic hardships, because his work had very little acceptance.

Reviewing the cards he wrote at that time, you can see how his humor was dyed of a deep sadness, which he said to drag since his time in Scotland and England, and that apparently shared with his stepmother. He blamed his depressive states to economic scarcity and labor precariousness.

However, he himself recognized abnormal fluctuation in his mood, being able to pass in seconds from the deepest depression to joy and exaltation. He described as in those moments of immense joy, his creativity overflowed, felt inexhaustible and I could spend whole hours writing with frenzy.

Another of his most famous stories: "The fall of the Usher house"

Happiness lasts little

Despite the shortage of economic resources, he enjoyed with Virginia some years of said marriage happiness. In 1845 he published his famous poem "El Cuervo", which for some is the most beautiful poem in American literature. Thanks to the success of the poem, he reached a certain social renown, although he barely obtained a few dollars for his work. But again fate, played a bad pass and The tuberculosis, that he had already caused the death of his natural mother, He prey in his wife, who died in 1847 at 24 years of age.

This tragic experience, sank him in a severe depression, Where only Consuelo was found in alcohol. But soon, not even the ethyl vapors were enough to mitigate their grief, and fell into a new addiction: the laudano, which has a high opium content.

Edgar, with 38 years of age, spent several months destroyed by pain. He sought comfort in alcohol, opium and other women Like Sara Whitmann, Marie Louise Shew and Ana Heywood. Despite his pain and his disorderly life, he kept writing and published the poem "Ulalume" and his latest book "Eureka". Shortly after, in 1848, he tried to commit suicide with a massive intake of laudanan.

A mysterious death

The writer, recovered from his failed attempt at suicide, returned to Richmond, where He met Sara Elmira Royster, of which he had been in love in his youth. The He proposed marriage and he accepted, on the condition that he left alcohol and his chaotic life.

They set the date of marriage for October 19, 1849 and for a few days he was exultant of happiness through the streets of Richmond. A few days later, his track was lost and appeared in Baltimore, in a state of obnubilation, with clothes that was not his, delirious and with intense anguish and agitation. He was admitted to a Baltimore hospital and on October 7, When twelve days were missing for the wedding. His death, today, is still a mystery. The last words that came out of his lips were: "What God has mercy on my poor soul".

Poe's alcohol in the life

Although many authors have considered Poe as an alcoholic writer, everything seems to indicate that he was not an alcoholic. At least, in the sense we give today: a person dependent on the drink, who needs to drink daily to calm his anxiety. Some authors, such as Pearl, among others, seem to confirm that Poe suffered what in medicine is known as pathological drunkenness. This is a medical picture, where the subject before the intake of small doses of alcohol, experiences deep humor changes, psychomotor alterations and even delusional paintings. Well, according to Pearl, in the case of Edgar Allan Poe, It was enough for the intake of a small glass of wine, to pass from depression to maniac excite, although sometimes the opposite could happen.

Edgar's father was a chronic alcoholic, and the effects of alcohol, in addition to strongly affecting his personality, are reflected throughout his work. Thus we see how in "The Black Cat", the protagonist, under the influence of alcohol, commits horrible crimes.

The tuberculous hemoptysis of his mother, and his early death, when he was barely a baby, had to leave a deep and painful mark on the writer's mood. Thus, when his wife became ill of tuberculosis, blood vomiting revived the traumas of childhood. Poe himself, confesses in a letter, who went crazy with pain and delivered to the drink. His enemies blamed his madness to excess drink. Poe says they were wrong because it was madness that pushed him with the drink.

Was Edgar Allan Poe Epileptic?

In the time of Poe, the known epilepsy, it was the one we called today convulsions great evil, where the individual suffers from generalized seizures, loss of consciousness and incontinence of sphincters. However.

In the epilepsy of Temporary lobe Focalized motor automatisms appear, which can be followed by periods of obnubilation, and sometimes visual hallucinations.

Apparently, a doctor who attended his wife, told him that he could suffer from epilepsy. Poe presented a marked facial asymmetry, which could be explained by fetal suffering during childbirth. At that time the death of the child or mother, during childbirth, was not a rarity.

It is not surprising that a child as a result of complicated delivery, would have also suffered some brain damage. This could explain asymmetry on the face for a possible facial paralysis. Likewise, a temporary lobe injury would not be unlikely. In the case of Poe Alcohol intake could act as a trigger for comical crises.

This could explain the master descriptions of pathologies that we have in their works. Poe describes and reflects perfectly, the symptomatology that appears in some forms of temporal epilepsy. This is what we see in his story "The well and the pendulum", where the protagonist is tortured by the Inquisition. During the torment he suffers a picture of complex visual hallucinations, which ends with a loss of knowledge. In their poem "Berenice" the protagonists suffer from epilepsy. The work describes a clear epileptic picture, followed by a posterior amnesia.

Bipolar disorder

It seems clear, as can be seen from their own writings, which Poe suffered a bipolar disorder. The disorder became, especially to evidence, when consuming alcohol. Poe had a tendency to depressive states, which in his words was brought from Scotland. Faced with the feelings of loneliness, hopelessness and vital sadness, Poe resorted to alcohol. A small dose was enough to move from depression to the manic state, with verbiage and hyperactivity. Both major depression and bipolar disorder are frequently associated with alcoholism and abuse of other drugs.

Theories about his death

There is no unanimity about the cusa of his mysterious death, after appearing obnubilated and deliring through the streets of Baltimore. For his detractors, a relapse in his ethyl habits was the cause of his pitiful situation. Against this thesis, there is the fact that I had not drink months without drinking. In addition, a member of an abstemious club in Baltimore had become a member. The doctor who attended him, shortly before he died, said he did not present ethyl breath. In fact they offered a glass of wine, thinking that he was suffering a picture of “Deliriun Tremens” by alcoholic deprivation. Poe, although in a confusional state, rejected the drink.

The other thesis that is considered, as more likely, is that of a state of hallucinatory obnubilation, surveyed after a temporary epilepsy crisis. Nor can it be ruled out that he suffered some cranial trauma, product of some fall (by alcohol or epilepsy) and it would have caused an intracranial hematoma. This was able to condition an epileptic status of the utmost gravity that ended his life.

Many years have passed and there is no certainty about the cause of death. On the contrary, there is an absolute unanimity about the genius of his work.