Tangents, on Madness

Originally published in an online medical forum, 2010, in response to the question: "Do you feel there is a link between creativity and madness?"

I, of course, think that a link between creativity and "madness"/ illness/disease is very well defined throughout history. I even have a book, an anthology, "Final Drafts", that depicts mini-biographies of some of the greatest writers ever - Virginia Wolfe, Hemingway, Dickinson - and the link that tied them all together: they all committed suicide. Sylvia Plath, one of the first "confessional poets" wrote "Ariel" - considered by far to be her best work - while she was in a downward spiral of depression. You can see the pain she was going through in her work; some of the poems so tangible they are hard to read. But that very quality is what makes the work so phenomenal. And that pain is something we can all identify with. Maybe not now, but some day, yes. Upon the completion of "Ariel", Plath ended her life by turning on the gas oven in her home and locking all of the doors.

Morbid, I know. I often think that many individuals with illness, especially those illnesses affecting our mental faculties, explore (or are blessed) with creative genius as a means to express that which is unexplainable by words. There are such exquisite connections between art and science that many people fail to make because, for one, they are not looking for them. They don't know how to look for them. I know that when we are "ill' everything takes on a new perspective, but not everyone is willing or able to utilize or appreciate this new perspective.

In looking at mood disorders such as bipolar disorder, an illness that is defined by extreme highs (mania) juxtaposed with extreme lows (depression), the intensity of these mood swings sometimes allow the individual the energy (mania) to create original works of art/prose/music, while the depression brings in the surreal melancholy of deep, and sometimes dark, emotion. I remember Nancy Griffith - one of the pioneers of folk music in the US - once said that every good song writer has suffered extreme heartbreak; has been through some kind of depression or another. They are inspired by their suffering.

I think illness puts up a creative block in ways. How does one get around that block? After all, how does one EXPLAIN what it feels like to receive chemotherapy, or suffer from PTSD, or talk about the unseen forces of bipolar disorder? Often times poetry, art and other forms of artistic expression replace these long wordy explanations and afford one the construction of a doorway through which others may enter and perhaps begin to understand even a semblance of what they experience. Whether or not an individual realizes that what he is creating might have a profound effect on society is of little relevance. I believe that many of the world's greatest artists and poets didn't create their work for fame and fortune--they did it because they had to. It was simply who they were. And perhaps some illness or mental disorder made them so.

I have seen the intense focus that coincides with Asperger's syndrome. Dr. Temple Grandin, a biologist at Colorado State University, can sketch out an entire animal processing facility in 3D design, by hand, by memory, after only seing it once! She can see things that other people cannot. Even Einstein was thought to have Asperger's. When they looked at Einstein's brain, it was noted that the visual and analytical parts were "wired" together in such a way that some reasoned this was why Einstien was able to visualize complex mathematical equations.

I also think that some people simply have a visionary gift. Who is to say if someone experiencing hallucinations isn't actually seeing them? Is this a gift, that can not be properly utilized, or a curse that the rest of society cannot understand. I know many artists and musicians, and many writers, who get their inspiration from hard moments, from suffering. Therefore, with the state of the economy, the health care crisis in America, one would expect an art explosion any day now. A build up of creative juices stirred by the very illness of our society!

The bottom line is that if all illnesses, and especially mental illness, had been properly diagnosed and treated throughout history, we would have missed out on a lot of great art. And in overly-medicating our society, it is interesting to consider just how many amazing works of art we are either destroying or delaying. Personally, I think the stigma of mental illness especially causes many people to back into a hole and not embrace the unique thought processes that sometimes accompany such disorders.