Leonardo da Vinci, one of the greatest polymaths to have ever lived, demonstrated many of the characteristics and co-morbidities associated with ADHD. From his inability to complete projects and restlessness to his unique sleeping habits, Leonardo has recently been the subject of numerous studies which believe he suffered from what we now call ADHD.

Note: While I do have a degree in history and archaeology, and have ADHD myself, I am not a qualified psychologist, neuroscientist or health provider of any kind. This article is mere historical speculation. If you feel you may have ADHD please consult with a qualified health provider.

Who was Leonard da Vinci?

And why does it matter? We humans have a deep desire to understand the world and to understand each other. How do things work, can we replicate it, wield it to our desires, and improve it. And like a clock, what makes people tick?

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian painter, scientist, theorist, draughtsman, sculptor, engineer and architect in the 15th and 16th centuries. His most famous works include The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and the Vitruvian Man. He conceived of flying machines centuries before they were invented and the double hull. Such was his fame during his lifetime he passed away with his head on the lap of the King of France himself, Francis I. All this has made him one of the most influential and confounding men of all time.

 

What is ADHD?

ADHD is short for Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. It is a neurologically divergent development which is classified as a mental health disorder by the American Psychological Association. While mostly associated with overly exuberant children, many adults suffer from ADHD undiagnosed where this hyperactive energy has dissipated with age.

In short, adult symptoms of ADHD include:

• Impulsivity
• Disorganization and poor time keeping
• Trouble focusing on one task
• Periods of intense focus to the detriment of normal life
• Restlessness
• Task switching
• Low frustration tolerance
• Mood swings
• Task completion issues
• Poor stress management
• Poor planning
• Trouble multitasking (really, we shouldn’t be multitasking anyway)

It is unclear what causes ADHD to develop. Theories can be broken down into three categories – genetic, environmental, and problems with the nervous system during development. It is not for me to say. However, other neurodiverse and developmental conditions ranging from Autism and Aspergers (which in America have been merged by the APA) to left-handedness and to have learning difficulties such as dyslexia, are more common with people with ADHD.

People with ADHD are more likely to suffer from life complications such as:

• Regular unemployment
• Alcohol or other substance misuse
• Unstable relationships
• Poor physical and mental health
• Poor self-image
• Trouble with the law
• Poor school or work performances
• Financial problems

Using these basic lists of ADHD symptoms and common life complications, let’s take a look as to whether they fit what we know about Leonardo da Vinci.

The Problem of Diagnosing People from the Past

What we are attempting to do is diagnose someone who has been dead for just over 500 years. This means we have limited evidence with which to make such an assessment, and this

does not include the patient themselves. Like any historical evidence we are left with three main types of evidence:

• What the person themselves wrote or created, including what they said about themselves.
• What contemporaries who knew him personally or worked with him, said about him.
• What people who knew people or who read now lost texts either by him or by those who knew him, have written. These may or may not be contemporaries of him.

Making a diagnosis is difficult enough. Ideally a person would be able to diagnose themselves (just like we hope our malfunctioning computers will self-diagnose). However, we often lack either or both objectivity and topic expertise.

This means we turn to “experts” who in theory are objective seekers of the truth. Of course, all too often they are not because either they are not as objective as one would hope (too pro diagnosis, too anti, or they just do not like the patient) or are not up-to-date with current thinking and knowledge. And that is not to assume any malice on their part. Furthermore, they often must use their imagination in conjunction with what they have trained in, in order to build a diagnosis. No one knows their body and mind as well as the patient themselves.

Leonardo da Vinci never studied ADHD nor did he know of its existence as a thing, so he never expressed an opinion on it or whether it fit him. We cannot ask him his opinion for he is no longer with us. This leads us to rely on the above mentioned evidence, and to treat it as a historical curiosity – a hypothesis which cannot be truly tested. Therefore, what follows is a mere idea. I’d love to know your opinions on it.

The Biographical Conception of Leonardo da Vinci

According to Marco Catani of King’s College and Paolo Mazzarello of the University of Pavia, the biographical image we have of Leonardo da Vinci is a Romantic one and a false one. Romantic authors have Leonardo da Vinci as something of “a solitary genius who remained unappreciated by his contemporaries owing to his ideas being too advanced for his time.”

However, the reality was quite different. Biographers who try to pay attention to the sources we have, show that Leonardo did his best to please his customers. However, they were “left with the disappointment of being denied possession of a concrete expression of his talent.” That is not to say that he kept both the money and the piece commissioned, but to say that he never quite finished them. Even the Mona Lisa remains incomplete. Furthermore, while his genius was certainly appreciated and admired, those around him and those who paid for his services, “could never understand or forgive his lack of discipline.” 

This has left many biographers and those interested in his life, wondering what if. What if he had the ability to focus on one project, the ability to manage his time and energy properly, and what if he had completed his projects. Maya M. Tola of Daily Art Magazine has put together a list of the Unfinished Works of Leonardo da Vinci, let’s take a look at some of them. They include:

• The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne
• Saint Jerome
• Adoration of the Magi
• Along with paintings he never completed the Gran Cavallo sculpture

As someone who shares Leonardo’s inability to finish projects, though with less than a smidgen of his talent, I know how difficult it can be to finish a project. It is not laziness or even necessarily procrastination – though those both occur. Life with ADHD is a battle against the self – to find the energy and focus to see something through, to battle a ton of other ideas – any one of which could pull us entirely off course for days, weeks, or forever. Then there is the self-doubt. Finally, if there is no firm deadline then it is even worse. Though, there might be another reason.

Co-morbidities and Lifelong Oddities

When he was 65, Leonardo da Vinci seems to have suffered some kind of stroke. Doctors have puzzled over contemporary accounts of Leonardo’s later life. In 1517, a Cardinal’s assistant named Antonio de Beatis visited Leonardo. He remarked that “one cannot expect any more good work from him, as a certain paralysis has crippled his right hand” and “although Messer Leonardo can no longer paint with the sweetness which was peculiar to him, he can still design and instruct others.”

It seems that he’d lost the use of his right hand, but continued to write. How? Well, analysis of his written materials tells us that he was almost certainly left-handed. But, he painted with his right. This is not as unlikely as you might think. I too am left-handed, and while I paint like a five-year old with some paint and half a potato, I delegate some tasks such as using scissors to my right hand. Though I seriously doubt a cardinal’s assistant will ever remark that while I no longer cut paper with all the precision of a drunk moose, I can still write incomprehensible nonsense.

Leonardo almost certainly suffered a stroke to his left hemisphere. This affected the right-hand side of his body. Thus it impaired his ability to paint but not to write because his left hand is controlled by the right hemisphere. However, he could still speak. In other words the language faculties which should have been affected by the right hemisphere stroke were not. This leads us to assume that he had a rare development seen in less than 5% of the population – reverse right hemisphere dominance for language.”

The Thing About Leonardo’s Handwriting

In true ADHD fashion, Leonardo left reams of paper on various subjects. They were never completed in a coherent form. However, we do know that he liked to write backwards. What we do know is that he wrote with his left-hand, which is more common with people with ADHD than without.

In addition to this, his works are littered with numerous spelling errors. However, we should note that this was the 15th and 16th centuries. This was the era of the printing press. It had been invented earlier in his lifetime and it was only during this time, as printed works spread, that writing would become more standardised. Even a century later, Shakespeare would not even have a standardised spelling of his own name. 

This being said, the spelling errors have led many to believe that he had another developmental disorder commonly seen alongside ADHD – dyslexia. As someone who also has it though in a mild form, it can lead to phonetic spelling issues, but also problems tracking or reading words.The brain forgets where the line is when tracking from one to another while letters can appear in the wrong order when reading.

The Oddity of Leonardo’s Sleep Routine

Or lack thereof. People with ADHD are more likely to develop sleep disorders. This shows itself in disrupted sleeping patterns, taking longer to fall asleep, shallower sleeping overall, and therefore more likely to suffer sleep deprivation. This builds on top of their poor time management and a general dislike or inability to keep to routines. During the day this manifests itself in general fatigue, forgetfulness, and a difficulty with concentrating.

What was Leonardo da Vinci’s routine? To say it was odd is an understatement. It is so tough I do not recommend you ever try it. Or at least, not for more than a couple of days. He did not sleep, really. Not as we would understand it – or at least not enough to go through an entire REM cycle – which takes approximately 90 minutes. 

Leonardo would sleep for about 20 minutes every four hours. So that meant he would get six sets of 20 minutes slumber every 24 hours or effectively 2 hours of broken sleep time. I tend to get 6-7 hours of broken sleep because everything from motorbike boys outside to the neighbour banging every possible thing in his apartment, to the fridge going off, wakes me up. It is hard to say whether his broken sleep was due to ADHD or something else. 

So, did Leonardo da Vinci have ADHD?

We will never know. As Graeme Fairchild of the University of Bath told CNN, “maybe the restlessness, energy and creativity that came with his ADHD explains why he achieved so much in so many different fields, even if he often didn’t finish the things he started.” 

We can say based on the information we have of him, that ADHD is a good fit. It seems likely that he did have his own form of the developmental disorder. There might be other explanations or contributions – did he have some form or level of autism? It is now a spectrum rather than being black or white, so he might have shown some parts of that too – more likely to be what we once called Asperger’s than old school autism.

What we know for certain is that Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest humans who ever lived, one of those people who helped propel the Great Men of History theory of how we came to be where we are now (as opposed to the more Marxist economic theory of history). Whether he finished Mary’s shawl or not, it is a great painting. Same for the mysterious beauty of the Mona Lisa or the Christian symbolism of the Last Supper. He furthered our understanding of anatomy and he was ahead of his time in terms of technology. He will always be one of the greats so long as we remember him.