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CHAPTER 08 · Medical Problems of Musical Masters

Harmony and Discord: The Medical History of Robert and Clara Schumann

Saman Arfaie, MD, CM · Phillip L. Pearl, MD, FAES, FACNS

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Abstract

The medical literature surrounding the untimely death of Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856) contains a vast array of speculations, thoughts, and afterthoughts about the nature and etiology of his disease. These diagnoses range from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia to neurosyphilis, cerebral arteriosclerosis and hypertension, alcoholism, and even personality disorders. Given that the last two and a half years of Robert’s life were spent in an inpatient psychiatric asylum where he died, there is the now-problematized tendency to interpret Schumann’s life in light of his madness (Wahnsinn). Some have explored Robert’s life and his music in this retrograde fashion, observing how Robert’s future, marked by his madness and eventual death, looms over his past. However, this perspective is, at best, a teleological fallacy as it simplifies and does not encompass the entirety of Robert’s life—one that was cultivated by a strong literary sense, recurrent losses of those he loved, failed romantic pursuits, unfaltering love for Clara Wieck, and a mind wholly committed to music. This chapter analyzes the complexity of the diagnoses and contrasting perspectives amongst musicologists, psychiatrists, and medical historians since Robert’s death and includes the story of this great romance from music’s Romance era, preoccupied with an expression of music and the arts in the context of nature, and the medical history of his gifted partner, Clara.

Keywords

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Chapter references below omit unverified page ranges and chapter-specific DOIs.

APA

Arfaie, S., & Pearl, P. L. (2026). Harmony and Discord: The Medical History of Robert and Clara Schumann. In P. L. Pearl & S. Arfaie (Eds.), Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity. Cambridge University Press.

AMA

Arfaie S, Pearl PL. Harmony and Discord: The Medical History of Robert and Clara Schumann. In: Pearl PL, Arfaie S, eds. Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity. Cambridge University Press; 2026.

Vancouver

Arfaie S, Pearl PL. Harmony and Discord: The Medical History of Robert and Clara Schumann. In: Pearl PL, Arfaie S, editors. Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2026.

Chicago

Arfaie, Saman, and Phillip L. Pearl. “Harmony and Discord: The Medical History of Robert and Clara Schumann.” In Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity, edited by Phillip L. Pearl and Saman Arfaie. Cambridge University Press, 2026.

BibTeX

@incollection{chapter8_2026,
  author = {Arfaie, Saman and Pearl, Phillip L},
  title = {Harmony and Discord: The Medical History of Robert and Clara Schumann},
  booktitle = {Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity},
  editor = {Pearl, Phillip L. and Arfaie, Saman},
  publisher = {Cambridge University Press},
  year = {2026}
}

Harvard

Arfaie, S. and Pearl, P. L. (2026) “Harmony and Discord: The Medical History of Robert and Clara Schumann”, in Pearl, P.L. and Arfaie, S. (eds.) Music, Medicine, and the Neurobiology of Creativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Saman Arfaie

Saman Arfaie

MD, CM

Neurology Resident Physician | McGill University Health Centre (MUHC)MSc Candidate, Integrated Program in Neuroscience | McGill University, Montreal Neurological Institute (The Neuro)

McGill University · University of California, Berkeley

Music, memory & creative expression

Saman Arfaie is an Adult Neurology resident physician, neuroscience researcher, and classically trained pianist whose interests connect music, memory, creativity, and neurological disease, with particular attention to the late works of Schubert and Beethoven.

A pianist for more than two decades, he has studied with Tatiana Dardykina, DMA; Jui Sheng Li, DMA; and Dane Ko, DMA, and pursued musicology at the University of California, Berkeley with Professors James Q. Davies and Nicholas Mathew. He presented Echoes of Time & Memory: The Late Piano Works of Schubert at the American Osler Society’s 2026 meeting in Toronto and a Chopin lecture-recital at TEDxMcGill.

Neuroscience & clinical research

At the McGill University Health Centre and Translational Neuroimaging Laboratory, he studies neurodegeneration through fluid biomarkers, PET, and MRI, including Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers, alpha-synuclein pathology in Lewy body disease, vascular modifiers of progression, and Parkinson’s disease subtypes. He uses stereoelectroencephalography to investigate epileptic networks and brain-state transitions, including the effects of radiofrequency thermocoagulation, and contributes to clinical trials through McGill’s Clinical Research Unit.

Education & scholarship

He completed his MD, CM at McGill after earning dual degrees in Molecular and Cell Biology, with an emphasis in Neurobiology, and Near Eastern Languages and Literature at Berkeley, with minors in Chemistry and Music. He is an MSc candidate in McGill’s Integrated Program in Neuroscience. His interdisciplinary monograph COVID-19 Contextualized is under review at the University of Calgary Press. He contributed “Robert’s Health Issues” to Clara and Robert Schumann in Context, and his public engagement includes five TEDx talks.

Selected work & perspectives

Saman Arfaie · Music, repertoire & academic workClara and Robert Schumann in Context · Cambridge contributor biographiesMusic, medicine, and public speaking · McGill University
Phillip L. Pearl

Phillip L. Pearl

MD, FAES, FACNS

Director of Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology | Boston Children’s HospitalWilliam G. Lennox Chair and Professor of Neurology | Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School · Boston Children’s Hospital

Profile

Phillip L. Pearl is Director of Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology at Boston Children’s Hospital and William G. Lennox Chair and Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He studied at Johns Hopkins University and the Peabody Conservatory of Music before attending the University of Maryland School of Medicine. His research focuses on inherited metabolic epilepsies, particularly disorders of GABA metabolism. A physician and musician, he has published extensively at the intersection of music and medicine and is Co-Editor in Chief of the seventh edition of Swaiman’s Pediatric Neurology.

Scholarship & professional background

His postgraduate training included a pediatric neurology residency at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, followed by fellowship training at Boston Children’s Hospital. Alongside his work on GABA-related disorders, he has developed educational projects connecting neurology with art and music, including Neurology Through Art and Time. His own musical practice encompasses jazz piano, vibraphone, and drums, informing a sustained interest in how musical experience and clinical neuroscience illuminate one another.

He also serves as Co-Director of the Epilepsy Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is a Fellow of the American Epilepsy Society and of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society, and a past president of both the Child Neurology Society and the Professors of Child Neurology. His honours include the American Epilepsy Society’s 2024 Fritz E. Dreifuss Award.

Selected work & perspectives

Phillip L. Pearl · Boston Children’s HospitalSwaiman’s Pediatric Neurology: Principles and Practice · Seventh editionNeuro-Logic: A Primer on LocalizationInherited Metabolic Epilepsies · Second editionResearch, publications, and clinical neuroscienceMusic, epilepsy, and the brain · International League Against EpilepsyFellowship and Fritz E. Dreifuss Award · American Epilepsy SocietyClinical neurophysiology credentials and pediatric EEG guidelines