Tesla: His Tremendous and Troubled Life

Summary

The enigmatic Nikola Tesla—stalked by his ever-present inner demons—invents the modern world. His astonishing story is that of a new-age god, a genius, a Zeus, a wonderful Wizard, yet a deeply troubled one. He tames the mysterious force called “electricity;” he dazzles the world with his endless inventions and discoveries; he blazes new paths in science that profoundly impact our daily lives; he turns fantasies into realities; his thought experiments disrupt scientific norms; he gives us many of the indispensable tools we use today; and famous actresses and chanteuses clamor for his attention as powerful men desire to be his friend . . . all before an astonished world. Yet all the while he keeps his own counsel, as he simultaneously struggles with the challenging consequences of bipolar disorder: flights of manic energy alternating with depressive depths of great despair. He shuns the clichés of a quotidian life, while forever seeking to “lift the burdens from the shoulders of mankind.” It would become his lifelong leitmotif, but at what cost to him?

The authors Marko Perko and Stephen M. Stahl, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc., propose a “new- style biography” entitled T E S L A: His Tremendous and Troubled Life. They will examine Nikola Tesla in a manner that has yet to be accomplished in publishing history―asking and answering the seminal question: Who was the real man with an extremely complex psyche/personality, who lived with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and a hyperthymic temperament spilling over at times into high flying bipolar mania and then crashing into devastating depression—and not simply the iconoclastic scientist who invented the modern world?