Wreaths were laid at a memorial plaque at the Semmelweis University's Institute of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, where Csáth was an intern, by department head at the Ministry of Education and Culture Géza Boros and chairman of the Hungarian Writers Association Lajos Szakolczay.
Szász said in his eulogy that Csáth's works deserve much more attention in Hungary, especially considering the renewed popularity of diary writing in the form of internet blogs and the importance of the issue of drugs. (Csáth's diaries were published, and drugs are one of the main themes in Csáth's works.)
Csáth was born József Brenner in Szabadka, or Subotica in present-day Serbia, on February 13, 1887. Encouraged by his cousin, the poet and prose writer Dezső Kosztolányi, Csáth published his first music reviews in a local newspaper. His short story The Heater was printed in Jövendő in 1904.
After graduating from secondary school, Csáth travelled to Budapest to apply to the Music Academy. His application was rejected, so he enrolled at the medical university.
While a third-year medical student, he worked for Budapesti Napló writing as a music critic and a columnist. He also started publishing short stories for Nyugat, Hungary's most important literary journal at the time. His first collection of short stories, The Magician's Garden, was published in 1908.
Csáth graduated from the medical university in 1909 and started as an intern at a mental health institute directed by the famous doctor Ernő Moravcsik.
In the spring of 1910, Csáth was diagnosed with tuberculosis and started taking morphine, to which he later became addicted. In spite of the addiction, the following years were his best, both as a writer and a doctor. Two of his plays were staged at the Hungarian Theatre. His collection of short stories Afternoon Sleep was published, as was a collection of writing on music entitled Composer Portraits. He also published a book on combining traditional mental health treatments with psychoanalysis.
But his addiction worsened, and he was treated for it at a hospital in the south of Hungary in 1919. He broke off the treatment, went home and shot his wife. Then he tried to commit suicide.
He was released to relatives in Serbia, but fled back to Hungary. While crossing the border, he was stopped by soldiers and swallowed a vial of poison, killing himself.
