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Gerald M. FitzGibbon, FRCPC
Ottawa, Ontario

JAMA. 1997;277(16):1276.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—Barloon and Noyes¹ suggest that Charles Darwin's anxiety neurosis might more specifically be classified as panic disorder with agoraphobia. It is an attractive hypothesis. However, their opinion that the illness may well have facilitated completion of Darwin's work is not original and invites comment.

In his 1974 book, Pickering² examined creative genius and discussed the close link between mental illness and the work of 6 famous people. These links differed distinctly in their nature. A thoroughly researched consideration of the life and work of Darwin was the starting point for his study. He considered, as also in the case of Florence Nightingale, the role of emotional illness in providing the social withdrawal essential to intense and prolonged intellectual activity. The book was acclaimed and reprinted³ in the United States. References to it are readily accessible in the medical literature, as, for instance, in the article⁴ by . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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