Historical recovery heroes – Charles Darwin
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/20428301111140903 |
| Date | 23 May 2011 |
| Pages | 66-70 |
| Published date | 23 May 2011 |
| Author | Elizabeth Wakely,Jerome Carson |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Recovery
Historical recovery heroes –
Charles Darwin
Elizabeth Wakely and Jerome Carson
Abstract
Purpose – The paper reviews Darwin’s health problems and suggests they may have been a ‘‘creative
malady’’.
Design/methodology/app roach – The auth ors look at Darwin’s upbringing, his career and
achievements, evidence for mental illness and his status as a historical recovery hero.
Findings – In addition to the published literature, Darwin himself acknowledged that his health
problems enabled him to dedicate his life to his scientific research.
Originality/value – The authors combine their perspectives as a historian and psychologist to interpret
the literature on Darwin’s illness.
Keywords Recovery, Panic disorder, Chagas disease, Evolution
Paper type Literature review
Introduction
Charles Darwin has been described as one of the greatest scientists of the nineteenth
century, if not ‘‘the greatest scientist who ever lived’’ (Bergman, 2004). His name is
associated with the theory of evolution. In brief, that life on earth developed (evolved)
through the ability of certain species to adapt to their changing environment (natural
selection), while those that could not became extinct and that this is a continuous process.
Darwin was one of ‘‘The Fantastic Five’’ championed by Campbell and Jones as part of the
Time to Change anti-stigma campaign. Interest in Darwin’s chronic health problems,
continues to attract the attention of physicians and psychiatrists.
Upbringing and early life
Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury on 12 February 18 09 to society doctor
Robert Darwin (son of Erasmus Darwin, physician and natural philosopher) and his wife
Susannah, (daughter of the potter Josiah Wedgwood). His childhood seems to have been
unremarkable, though firmly bound up with strong protestant Christianity, and he attended
schools in Shrewsbury, spending many of his holidays in North Wales where he first
developed his taste for natural history and collecting. His mother died in 1817, when he was
just eight, and his father was very authoritarian. In 1825, at the age of 16, on the wishes of his
father, he began to study medicine at Edinburgh University, but he did not graduate, as he
found medicine boring and distressing and was far more interested in natural history.
His father, therefore, sent him to Christ’s College, Cambridge, hoping to prepare him for an
alternative career in the church. But, again, his interest in natural history predominated
and he attended, and was inspired by, Professor John Henslow’s lectures on botany.
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VOL. 15 NO. 2 2011, pp. 66-70, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2042-8308 DOI 10.1108/20428301111140903
Elizabeth Wakely isa retired
History Teacher and
Service User from London,
UK. Jerome Carson
is a Consultant Clinical
Psychologist at the
South London and
Maudsley NHS Foundation
Trust, London, UK.
The authors are grateful to
librarian Paul Harrington for
literature searches and
Sheila Watson, for obtaining
key references.
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