Creativity and Madness
Creativity and MadnessMen have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence-whether all that is profound-does not spring from disease of thought-from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect.”
(Edgar Allan Poe, Qtd. in Jamison, 62) Throughout the years, many people have shared Edgar Allan Poe’s skepticism about a correlation between creativity and madness. Glancing back through history, evidence of mental turmoil relating to the artistic temperament can be dated as far back as the Ancient Greeks. Plato said that “creativity was a divine madness…a gift from the gods.” (Qtd. In Neihart, 48aol1) Aristotle asked: “Why is it that all men who are outstanding in philosophy, poetry, or the arts are melancholic?” (Aristotle, Qtd. In Gutin, 75aol2)
Creativity can be defined in infinite ways. It may be expressed as abstract thinking or the production of something both honored and new. Creativity was emphasized by Greek philosophers as, “a willingness to cross and re-cross the lines between rational and irrational thought.” (Neihart, 73aol3) Creativity can be assessed as the ability to maintain bold and restless moods, experience a deep variety of emotions, and focus intensely on ideas. “Madness may be defined as serf destructive deviant behavior.” (Neihart, 47aol4)
History may paint the idea that mental turmoil and creativity go hand in hand with its many examples of poets, artists, musicians, and novelists with eminence of major mood disorders. Lord Byron, the 19th century poet was thought to have a “volatile temperament,” which, “frequently set of sparks of poetic imagination.” (Bower, 378aol5) Byron was one among the many writers who were believed to have endured a major mood disorder. Other poets and novelists who wrote about their “savage moods,” include: William Blake, Alfred Lord Tennyson, John Berryman, Robert Lowell, Randall Jarrel, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Ernest Hemingway, Theodore Roethke, Henry James, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Delmore Schwartz, and Virginia Woolf. Many of these poets were confined to an asylum for depression or mania; others committed or attempted suicide. Artists, who were thought to have painted the picture of insanity included: Vincent Van Gogh, Ernest Kirchner, Ernest Josephson, Georgia O’Keefe, Max Ernest, Jackson Pollock, Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Gaugin, Edvard Munch, Michelangelo, and Mark Rothko. Composers Robert Schumann, Charles Mingus, Peter Warlock, Peter llich Tchaikovsky, and Sergy Rachmaninoff also suffered from probable mood disorders. (Jamison, 267-270)
Manic-depressive illness, major depression, cyclothymia, and hypomania are among the many mood disorders that are thought to plague artists. Manic-depression, or bipolar disorder, is a strongly genetic disease, which can be characterized by an intense depressive state and a hyperactive realm of euphoria. A manic-depressant experiencing a manic state tends to exhibit very irritable, driven, impulsive, overconfident, and often psychotic or destructive behavior. In a depressive cycle, they may have suicidal tendencies. Cyclothymia and hypomania are milder forms of manic-depression. Depression causes changes in thought patterns, sleep habits, and...
To view the complete essay, you be registered.