Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 64-65. (Budapest, 1972)
TANULMÁNYOK - Horánszky Nándor: Deák Ferenc lelki alkatának és betegségének befolyása pályájára
deeply. After 1845 his political activity showed some recess, accompanied by mental weariness and fatigue. At the end of 1S45 the pathological character of his mental state became apparent. His own words bear witness to that: "For some months my own health too has greatly changed for the worse. Liver troubles, hot flushes —my doctor says it is blind haemorrhoids —torment me. I'm not bed-ridden but continuously ailing." His condition deteriorated. He was treated by Strahl, a physician from Berlin and by Havas, a professor in Pest. The diagnosis: molimina haemorrhe dalia by the first, plethora abdominalis, hypercarbonisatio sanguinis by the second. The treatments produced no results. His friends wrote "his condition is far worse than he himself thinks". Attomyr, a homoeopath in Pozsony thought that Deák's nervous system was disturbed. Following the advice of his physicians Deák went abroad. The journey had a favourable effect on his health. Attomyr was content with the result but forbade him any public activity, otherwise "the worst" may occur. But the events of March 1848, the revolutionary situation, called him back from his withdrawal. Yielding to his sense of duty he accepted the mandate and went to Pozsony. When the first responsible Hungarian government was formed he accepted the portfolio of Minister of Justice, but only after lenghty persuasions. In the last weeks of the Diet he became depressed and irritable, as the extremist tendencies were exasperating him. When the events were turning toward an open conflict his behaviour became brooding and hesitating. After the resignation of Batthyány in September he refused to take office. His last —unsuccessful! —role was his membership in the delegation sent to the imperial commander, Windischgraetz, by the Hungarian Parliament. After that he returned to his family estate and remained there for the whole war of Independence. In the first years of the Bach period, following the suppression of the fight, he began to worry about his heart, and he showed some inclination to hypochondria. He returned into public life when in 1860/61 Pest-Inner City sent him to Parliament. The death of László Teleki deeply moved him. From 1865 he worked restlessly on bringing about the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (1867). Public feeling was increasingly critical of the Compromise, a fact that distressed Deák greatly. His illness, arteriosclerosis accompanied by the inadequacy of his heart, also became more serious. The resulting pains contributed to his low spirits. Although his mental powers were not affected by the illness, from 1873 he was unable to attend Parliament. His last years were spent in fighting against the increasingly painful symptoms of his illness. Accepting the classification of Kretschmer Ferenc Deák can be termed a cyclothymiac with an endomorphic constitution, whose life shows a nearly regular fluctuation between the synton middle-state and a tendency towards depression. His overwhelmingly cyclothymic mentality was however modified by some schizothymic features which counterbalanced the often unfavourable qualities of the cyclothymiacs. In connection with Deák's illness it can be said that his personality showed a definite shift from the well-balanced synton to the depressive. His illness at first took the form of a great variety of organic complaints, which later turned into definite melancholy. Attomyr was right in speaking of the disturbance of the mental system. Evidence undoubtedly prove that Deák suffered from depression. From the various forms of depression enumerated in the latest work of Kielholz Deák's case shows remarkable similarities with endogen depressions. But it cannot be excluded that his early disease, the death of his brother, the political excitements with the resulting
