“Curtain” by Eli Elschi . Public Domain via Pixabay
Schizophrenia is the most iconic of all mental illnesses but both its conceptualization and causes remain elusive. The popular image portrays patients convinced of being persecuted and hearing voices that nobody else can hear. In reality this complex brain disorder presents an endless variety of psychotic (delusions and hallucinations) and non-psychotic symptoms. This complexity is at the heart of a century-long debate about whether schizophrenia is a single illness or should be conceptualized as a syndrome, like dementia, in which different illnesses present common symptoms but have different causes.
One important case to look at when considering the origins of schizophrenia is that of Vaslav Nijinsky (1890-1950), the most talented ballet dancer in history, who was diagnosed one hundred years ago.
His biography resembles a novel, filled with drama, anecdotes, and controversies. A child prodigy at the Imperial Russian Ballet School in St. Petersburg, he went to lead Diaghilev’s legendary Ballet Russescompany that exhilarated Europe from 1909. Nijinsky was famous for the prodigious leaps, technical perfection, elegant movements, and delicate expression of emotions as much as for his radical choreographies (figure) that opened modern dance to the general public.
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PS The Wikipedia article is very informative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaslav_Nijinsky
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