Psychology question involving Robespierre...

[celine-carol.livejournal.com]

Hola, long time lurker, first time posting...

I've recently been pretty obsessed with the French Revolution (particularly Robespierre), and I've been reading quite a bit on him and his contemporaries, and I've noticed that a lot of people have jumped to diagnose several other revolutionaries and analyze every possible psychological inclination they may have had.  (I've read a lot of theories on what made Marat blister up, and there seems to be something of a consensus that Mirabeau probably had every venereal disease known to mankind, and sexual preferences that would have been considered rather deviant at the time have been attributed to Camille...)

But I've searched the internet rather thoroughly, and I have yet to find any explanation for Robespierre's behavior that really amounts to anything other than "He was a jerk" or "He was weird" or "He was just fanatical".
But a lot of his traits:  Jerky walk, fist clinching, facial twitching/grimacing, head/shoulder rocking, light filtering problems, issues with voice modulation, nervous breakdowns, gastrointestinal issues, social awkwardness, trembling hands, issues with unexpected social calls, not liking to be touched, absentmindedness, odd food preferences, not liking to look people in the face, refusal to change clothing/habits, and his tendency toward obsession ---
Seem to point toward something that could be diagnosed.

I was just curious if anyone else thought that his behavior could have been symptomatic of a disorder (or syndrome)?

Comments

[sibylla-oo.livejournal.com]

What a pity, I'd be very interested in the sources to judge their reliability myself.
For the moment, some of the "symptomps" seem to me as a part of the Thermidorian "not a people's man" image (i.e. Robespierre WAS NOT the only one among the jacobins who chose not to give up wearing the powdered wig, however, this detail was widely stressed to question the sincerity of his republicanism), while others shout at me "beware of florid 19th century writers like Carlyle and pseudo-Freudian homophobic 20th century filmmakers like Wajda" :-D BTW, "nervous breakdown" is Ruth Scurr's THEORY, not a proven fact. Many others attributed Robespierre's "absence for illness" to TBC and other diseases. As for the "issues with unexpected social calls" - what exactly are you referring to?
As for the bibliography in Spanish, there is actually quite a lot of stuff translated, including speeches and other primary sources not available in English.

[celine-carol.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I really don't know what sources would be reliable and which ones wouldn't.
I mean, obviously not the ones that pretty much say he was the devil wearing stripes, but the more moderate sounding ones are a bit confusing...

Charlotte's memoirs are actually what gave me impression that he was prone to severe anxiety and stress, which can lead to physical illnesses especially if someone quits eating like she said he would. And most of his long absences from public life were after really stressful decisions. But I guess those could have really been caused by anything.

The "Issues with unexpected social calls" was referring to a couple of accounts I read about his needing to be presentable before taking visitors (as opposed to Danton and Marat's more casual meetings). One thing I read even said he would sometimes ask for advance notice of a visit, preferably in writing? (this for people he wasn't well acquainted with, not his friends)

[maelipstick.livejournal.com]

BTW, "nervous breakdown" is Ruth Scurr's THEORY, not a proven fact. Many others attributed Robespierre's "absence for illness" to TBC and other diseases.

Sorry for butting in with a trivial comment, but what is TBC?