San Jose State University, San Jose, USA.
Wien Med Wochenschr. 2021 Nov;171(15-16):351-355. doi: 10.1007/s10354-021-00857-3. Epub 2021 Jul 1.
Significant problems have plagued medical and musicological researchers who wish to understand the complexities of Beethoven's physical and mental health. The most significant is a lack of detailed information on the composer's medical and mental conditions as they appeared and progressed. Though he consistently saw well-regarded doctors from around 1800 to his death, only one wrote a detailed description and only a few left information in the conversation books. Other problems are the limited medical knowledge about certain diseases at the time (such as the causes of deafness) and treatments with no or limited effectiveness (both for deafness and liver disease, for instance). Two additional problems are the focus of this essay. The first is the fact that studying the composer's health and diseases is a cross-disciplinary endeavor that requires specialized knowledge both of medical science and of musicological expertise into every corner of Beethoven's biography. The second concerns acquiring a knowledge of all the available sources that have survived to document the composer's health and a critical assessment of their value.
对希望了解贝多芬身心健康复杂性的医学和音乐学者来说，存在着重大问题。最主要的问题是缺乏作曲家身体和精神状况的详细信息，包括这些状况是如何出现和发展的。尽管贝多芬从 1800 年左右到去世一直持续看备受赞誉的医生，但只有一位医生写了详细的描述，只有少数医生在谈话本中留下了信息。其他问题还包括当时某些疾病（如耳聋的病因）的医疗知识有限，以及治疗效果不佳或有限（例如，耳聋和肝病）。本文关注两个额外的问题。第一个问题是，研究作曲家的健康和疾病是一项跨学科的努力，需要具备医学科学和音乐学专业知识，深入了解贝多芬生平的各个方面。第二个问题涉及获取所有可用资源的知识，这些资源记录了作曲家的健康状况，并对其价值进行批判性评估。
