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The study of Mozart's letters and biography leads us to reconsider the psychiatric disorders from which he suffered. Indeed, it seems that Mozart demonstrated depressive episodes, some of which were severe and corresponded to the criteria of the DSM-IV classification. However, the arguments put forward by other authors supporting the occurrence of manic or hypomanic episodes (thus constituting a bipolar disorder diagnosis) are not supported by sufficient historic proof. Indeed, the length of time that the behaviors suggesting manic symptoms lasted is not compatible with such a diagnosis. Rather, Mozart's mood swings and impulsive behavior correspond to some traits of a personality disorder, that is, for the most part, symptoms of the dependent personality disorder. Evidence for this diagnosis appears most notably in Mozart's reactions to his wife's absences, but also in occasional behaviors as well as mood lability. The divergences in the classification of Mozart's symptoms, either into the field of bipolar disorders or into that of personality disorders, are closely linked to the nosological uncertainties that are still a source of debate in today's psychiatric research. We discuss a means of overcoming this limitation by considering the concept of "soft bipolar spectrum," a conceptualization that corresponds to Mozart's psychiatric history.

Considerable confusion and disagreement remains in the psychiatric literature over the meaning of the term borderline. Over the last ten years a veritable explosion of books and articles on the subject have espoused overlapping and at times contradictory ideas on entirely different levels of discourse: biological, genetic, pharmacological, objective-descriptive, ego psychology theory, object relations theory, separation-individuation theory, and so on. Together, they seem both bewildering and irreconcilable. Despite DSM III's efforts to impose conceptual clarity, the situation remains a semantic mess. "Borderline" still means different things to different people and still tends to be a wastebasket diagnosis. No definition has been entirely satisfactory. This article is a preliminary effort at synthesis and explication of how and why psychiatry has arrived at this state of affairs.