Neuropsychiatric conditions and probable cause of death of Maurice Ravel
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.iatreia.154Keywords:
Dementia , History , Music , Neurology , NeurosurgeryAbstract
The renowned French composer and musician, Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) exhibited a perplexing case of progressive degenerative neurological symptoms, namely amnesia, aphasia, apraxia, amusia, and alexia. The symptoms started when Ravel was only fairly young, at 57, five years prior to his death in 1937. He was surgically intervened in what was known then as an exploratory craniotomy and passed away. There are a number of publications in which his life and known medical history were dissected and analyzed in an attempt to diagnose the ailment that Ravel suffered. Many iagnoses have been considered, among them Alzheimer’s disease, Pick Disease, primary progressive aphasia, corticobasal degeneration, and omplications of head injury following a car crash in 1932. Since an autopsy was not performed, an exact diagnosis is rather unlikely, and no one has been able to confirm or deny any of the aforementioned hypotheses. The
authors conducted an extensive revision of existent literature and propose some original ideas regarding
Ravel’s neurological condition, mainly the psychological impact of Ravel’s life and experiences and the way they may have influenced his musical genius.
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