Bogousslavsky J, Hennerici MG, BĂ€zner H, Bassetti C (eds): Neurological Disorders in Famous
Artists â Part 3. Front Neurol Neurosci. Basel, Karger, 2010, vol 27, pp 174â206
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âA Man Can Be Destroyed but Not Defeatedâ: Ernest Hemingwayâs Near-Death Experience and Declining Health
Sebastian Dieguez
Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
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Abstract
Ernest Hemingway is one of the most popular and widely acclaimed American writers of the 20th century. His works and life epitomize the image of the hyper-masculine hero, facing the cruelties of life with âgrace under pressureâ. Most of his writings have a quasi-autobiographical quality, which allowed many commentators to draw comparisons between his personality and his art. Here, we examine the psychological and physical burdens that hindered Hemingwayâs life and contributed to his suicide. We first take a look at his early years, and review his psychopathology as an adult. A number of authors have postulated specific diagnoses to explain Hemingwayâs behavior: borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression, multiple head trauma, and alcoholism. The presence of hemochromatosis, an inherited metabolic disorder, has also been suggested. We describe the circumstances of his suicide at 61 as the outcome of accumulated physical deterioration, emotional distress and cognitive decline. Special attention is paid to the war wound he suffered in 1918, which seemed to involve a peculiar altered state of consciousness sometimes called ânear-death experienceâ. The out-of-body experience, paradoxical analgesia and conviction that dying is âthe easiest thingâ seemed to influence his future work. The constant presence of danger, death, and violence in his works, as well as the emphasis on the typical Hemingway âcode heroâ, can all be traced to particular psychological and neurological disorders, as well as his early brush with death.
Copyright © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel
A man can be destroyed but not defeated
Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park (Illinois). He is one of the most popular American writers of the 20th century. When released in 1952, âThe Old Man and the Seaâ sold 5,300,000 copies in 2 days. The novel earned him the Pulitzer Prize in 1953, and the Nobel Prize the following year. He is also celebrated for his short stories, a genre in which he excelled his works as a journalist, a movie on the Spanish Civil War, his poetry and the prolific correspondence he left [Gurko, 1952].
Hemingway was a larger-than-life figure, not only a celebrated author, but also a real celebrity: âHis name was a synonym for an approach to life characterized by action, courage, physical prowess, stamina, violence, independence, and above all âgrace under pressureâ (âŠ) He was, in short, the heroic model of an ageâ [Yalom and Yalom, 1971, p 485]. He was indeed âa man living life to the hilt â deriving maximum value from experience â while achieving lasting workâ [Bruccoli, 1986, p x], who filled his life and works with overtly masculine themes such as war, bravery, hunting, fishing, safari, sports, drinking, bullfights, and of course women. His constant bragging, machismo, and sense of competition became legendary1 A charitable view might be that: âwhile aggrandizing himself, he aggrandized the practice of reading and writingâ [Bruccoli, 1986, p xii]. However, we will see that psychologically inclined critics perceived his overt behavior more like a defense to ward off his inner demons. His overt behavior and immense success, indeed, stand in sharp contrast to his very sad ending, when crippled by health and mental problems he committed suicide. This act might have been surprising to the general public and his readers, but it ultimately revealed the very deep insults that kept growing throughout his life inside his body and mind.
What made him such a famous author? Hemingway brought a revolution in style and was a keen observer of the contemporary world and human nature. At odds with most of his preceding and contemporary writers, he perceived the value of economy in writing. He was perhaps the first American author to write as a journalist, opting for grade school-like grammar, simple words and short descriptions. This might seem like a self-defeating approach for a novelist, but it nevertheless left its mark. There is even a joke about 20th century American writers that says that they can all be categorized in two groups: those trying to write like Hemingway and those trying not to. Through its deliberate simplicity, use of short declarative sentences, and urge to eliminate the superfluous, Hemingwayâs style magnified the art of the dialogue and mastered the use of the understatement (e.g. in âFor Whom the Bell Tollsâ, we find this famous line: âHe was dead, and that was allâ). For him, quite simply, âthe job of a writer is to tell what happened and how he feels about itâ [Goldberg, 1997].
His style is encapsulated in what he called his âiceberg theoryâ, which he explained in âDeath in the Afternoonâ (1932): âIf a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above waterâ [Burhans, 1960, p 446]. The effect was to âmake people feel something more than they understoodâ [Young, 1975, p 39].
Hemingway knew how to tell a story and capture the imagination of millions of readers. The basic pattern of his stories is âto expose a character to violence, to physical or psychological shock, or severe trial, and then to focus on the consequencesâ [Young, 1975, p 32].
It has been noted that all his male heroes are basically the same man [Gurko, 1952, p 373]. This is the âcode heroâ (a term coined by Young [1966]), a character that exemplifies principles of honor, courage, and stamina in the face of adversity. There are rules for the Hemingway code hero: no self-analysis, no self-retreat, no sentimentality, no rationalizations or excuses, no apologies, no cowardice, no deceptive flourishes or fakery. The code hero is true only to himself, remains stoic in the face of adversity, and does not care about otherâs opinions. It is not enough for the Hemingway character to have integrity, virility and courage, he has to show and demonstrate it repeatedly, and of course under the toughest circumstances. He thus needs to pass through a number of tests in which he can display âgrace under pressureâ (a phrase Hemingway seems to have coined himself [Parker, 1929]). Once the tests are passed, most of the time the hero dies [Gurko, 1952, p 374].
The writer himself seemed to have adopted this philosophy of life. His outlook was nonetheless quite pessimistic. As one critic wrote, for Hemingway âlife is one crisis after another. The naĂŻvetĂ© which believes otherwise only produces disappointment, heartbreak, and, eventually, fruitless despairâ [Gurko, 1952, p 373]. Vitality and action were his antidotes against the cruelties of life, which perhaps explains why Hemingway âhas sought out the death pattern wherever it appeared, on the battlefield, in the bullring, in the African jungle, in the individual consciousness, [as] only there could the full capacity of manâs powers of survival be fully testedâ [Gurko, 1952, p 375].
Of course, such a credo can quickly degenerate into ridicule and self-parody, as well as put oneself needlessly at risk and jeopardize oneâs valuable relationships. Indeed, the stakes Hemingway put for his heroes and himself were exceedingly high, nothing short of an attempt at immortality, as if men were mortal, but heroes immortal [Bocaz, 1971, p 53]. There were numerous obstacles to his idealized view of life and literature. One of which he was deeply aware of was celebrity: âfame came welcomingly early, burgeoned, blossomed and finally bloated into a demanding burdenâ [Monteiro, 1978, p 287]. Other problems, however, were much more worrisome. This chapter first examines the psychological and physical burdens that hindered Hemingwayâs life and ultimately lead to his suicide. Special attention is paid to a particular event he experienced while he was a young volunteer engaged in the World War I, in which he suffered a wound that nearly killed him and, apparently, involved a peculiar altered state of consciousness sometimes called a ânear-death experienceâ. We then discuss the effects these pathobiographical features might have had on his works.
Psychological and Psychiatric Assessment
We do not have a medical assessment of Hemingway. Although he was formally examined during his stay at the Mayo Clinic shortly before his suicide, his doctor, Howard P. Rome, held to his promise to keep his files secret [Yalom and Yalom, 1971; Craig, 1995]. We thus have to rely primarily on the information that has been gathered by biographers, accounts by friends and relatives, as well as interviews, his vast correspondence and of course his published works (below we will return on the extent to which Hemingwayâs writings should be considered autobiographical or not).
Psychology
Hemingwayâs early years seem relevant to understand the emergence of such a complex individual (for a summary of psychological approaches to Hemingway, see table 1). At age three, baby Ernest reportedly claimed âfraid of nothing!â, which aptly introduces the basic psyche of the man to come. His father was a medical doctor who imposed a very strict education on his children, and whose mood was highly unstable. Dr. Clarence Hemingway frequently displayed angry outbursts, sometimes beating his son, interspersed with profound depressive episodes, and often needed ârest curesâ away from his family [Martin, 2006]. In 1928, deeply depressed by financial problems, burdened by diabetes and angina, he committed suicide with a collectible Civil War pistol. Hemingwayâs mother was also described as being inconsistent. Although we might never know exactly why the writer came to hate her so much, we know that Grace Hemingway was very controlling and dominated her more passive husband. For unclear reasons, Hemingway would eventually blame her for his fatherâs suicide. Grace had an unstable mood and health, and suffered from headaches and insomnia. Most intriguingly, she went to some lengths to raise her son, and present him publicly, as a girl. Grace seemed to find some comfort in seeing Ernest as the twin of Marcelline, his sister. Both were dressed alike, but at the same time the mother encouraged her boy to display masculinity in sports, hunting and fishing. As one can imagine, much has been made of this anecdote from psychodynamic perspectives. Regardless of the alleged profound consequences for Hemingwayâs gender identity, he seemed to react with a combative attitude, crying out loud in his heart: âDamn it, Iâm maleâ [Young, 1975, p 44]. His youth was marked by feelings of anger and guilt, a taste for displaying courage, and an interest for violent imagery, firearms, and death. It seems plausible that the âquest for masculinityâ so emblematic of Hemingwayâs life and work had something to do with these early years [Martin, 2006, p 356]. His parents, it should be said, never encouraged or even accepted their sonâs writing [Fuchs, 1965, pp 433-434]. In fact, all they could make of it was that it was âfilthâ.
Table 1. Psychological portrait of Hemingway, derived from various sources, as outlined by Craig [1995, pp 1076-1077]
Hypothesis | Description |
Neurosis emanating from parental dynamics | Father had mood disorders and was strict and violent Mother was dominant and sent mixed messages about gender identity and self-worth Confusing identification processes |
Latent homosexuality | Excessive displays of masculinity (overcompensation) Scornful attitude towards homosexuals |
Castration anxiety and unresolved oedipal conflict | Projective behaviors through hunting, fighting and interest for bullfight Defensive attitude towards women |
Weak self-image | Public and idealized self-images were to be constantly and strenuously strived for and defended Need for power |
Hemingwayâs psychological profile as an adult has been described by Hardy and Cull [1988] and summarized by Craig [1995, pp 1074-1076]. The writer emerges as a competitive and ambitious man of fierce independence, who frequently lied, exaggerated, and behaved childishly and egocentrically on many occasions. He required constant adulation and was prompt to destroy relationships when he found himself on egalitarian grounds or dominated by others. He often acted out of impulses to display his panache and could go to quite some lengths to make a point to an annoying interlocutor. The same authors have noted feelings of inadequacy and self-dissatisfaction, unstable masculine identity, tense relationships with his father (even after he committed suicide), hatred of his mother, need for extreme levels of stimulation, a deeply ingrained depression and suicidal tendencies present throughout his life. The key to understand Hemingwayâs behavior, it is concluded, is his need for overcompensating these flaws.
Hemingwayâs life and work interplay so closely that it has often been remarked that the author seemed to play one of his fictional characters in real life2 Yalom and Yalom [1971, p 487] argued that most of Hemingwayâs persona was in fact an âimageâ he carefully built through the years to hide his deeper angst, and they questioned his authenticity by wondering âwhether a man firmly convinced of his identity would channel such a considerable proportion of his life energy into a search for masculine fulfillmentâ and highlighted his âneed to assert again and again a brute virilityâ.
Certainly his need for action and danger were signs of a deeper personality trait. Perhaps Hemingway was anhedonic, and needed an inordinate amount of stimulation to experience pleasure. He had difficulties in being alone and constantly sought to fill his life with excitement and travels [Yalom and Yalom, 1971, p 487; Brian, 1988], to the point of complaining after the 2nd World War âof the emptiness and meaninglessness of his life without warâ.
Hemingwayâs ego appeared disproportionally big, and he was extremely sensitive to any critique, bearing extraordinary grudges against everyone who dared question his talent and courage. As his idealized self-image and general expectations were clearly unrealistic, he inevitably âfell short of his idealized goalsâ [Yalom and Yalom, 1971, p 490]. It has been argued that this discrepancy lead to disappointments, and ultimately to self-hatred and self-destructive tendencies.
Not surprisingly, a number of authors have written about Hemingwayâs alleged Oedipal issues, and speculated about repressed factors such as the âdeath instinctâ, a fear of castration and impotence, guilt over his fatherâs suicide, and even lat...