His descent into madness felt very accurate. It's dangerous to make psychiatric diagnoses from plays, but I thought Ian McKellen's performance was consistent with a vascular condition rather than Alzheimer's. The overreactions, the mood swings, the fits of temper and his awareness of his own condition are all typical. In vascular dementia, you tend to see a stormy personality. If Lear had a history of stroke, or if I'd been able to take his blood pressure, it would be easier to diagnose.
I used to have a neighbor who suffered from vascular dementia. He was beyond horrible. He terrorized everyone else in the building as well as his adult daughter when she came to visit. Imagining him as embodying the character of King Lear puts a whole new spin on the play.
When I first read the play I thought of him as very sympathetic. Neglected in old age, he was tragic and heartbreaking. But perhaps he was just a monster. Very ill, and that excuses a lot, but a monster nevertheless.
