The problem of Beethoven's deafness.

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Abstract
Every detail of a clinical picture of chronic catarrhal otitis media presents itself in Beethoven's case. The basic causation of his deafness was syphilis. All of his symptoms and the entire course of his disease--in so far as fact can be separated from fiction--are not only absolutely consistent with the diagnosis of acquired syphilis, but overwhelmingly demand this pronouncement. That there has been a conspiracy of silence and suppression of facts basic to the solution of this case must always remain gravely suspect, to say the least. His was a type of deafness that, beginning in the middle twenties, progressed to practically total status by the approximate age of forty-five. There were periods, virtually to the end, during which he could hear, at least by means of special appliances. Beethoven is an outstanding example of the compensation mechanism; he desperately strove to portray abounding health and well-being in opposition to his own lack of them. His psychopathic, paranoid nature, immeasurably aggravated by progressive loss of contact with people, acted as a powerful drive toward artistic accomplishment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

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