Did you know that many geniuses suffered from mental illness? Let us recall at least Vincent van Gogh or Edgar Allan Poe. At first glance, genius and madness seem to be antonyms and extremes, however, in fact, they are closely related to each other.
American psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison talks about the term "tortured genius." It is a type of psychosis that is associated with mood disorders. Jamison researched about half a million paintings by 16-year-olds, ten years later it turned out that the author of the works that received the most points had some kind of mental illness. The most common disorder is bipolar disorder.
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder involves extreme mood swings (sometimes in one second), from extreme happiness to severe depression. What does this have to do with talent and creativity? It turns out that when a person's mood improves, his brain activity also changes: activity flares up in the upper part of the frontal lobe.
Patients with bipolar disorder cannot filter stimuli. They can look at conflicting ideas at the same time and "release" unconscious associations. At the same time, the psyche of most healthy people does not consider these thoughts worthy of sending them to the surface of consciousness.
However, scientists argue that no person is capable of creating during severe depression or schizophrenia. These disorders are excruciating and sometimes life-threatening.
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Top five great writers whose talent was bordering on insanity
Edgar Allan
Almost all of Edgar Allan's works were dark and heavy, with a great many demons and other evil spirits in them. The same demons, according to the writer, also filled his consciousness. After the death of his wife, the writer admitted: "I have become insane, my sanity is in a terrible state." In the fall of 1849, Edgar Poe was found wandering aimlessly through the streets of Baltimore, and the next day he died in an honest clinic.
Philip K. Dick
Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick was addicted to amphetamine. He said that in 1974, while relaxing in his home after visiting a dental clinic, he experienced a series of colorful hallucinations. The attacks lasted for about six months. In them, Philip saw geometric shapes that were superimposed on scenes of religious and occult content. “It seemed to me that I had been insane all my life and had only now regained my mind,” the writer described another attack. During the seizures, he wrote his most famous books "Free Radio Albemuth" and "VALIS".
Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath first described her suicide attempt in the novel Under the Jar. In 1953, Sylvia was experiencing clinical depression, they tried to treat her with electric shock. However, after such treatment, the writer only got worse, but the doctors did not stop. In the end, 29-year-old Sylvia Plath was found dead in her own apartment: her head was in the oven from which gas was coming.
Marquis de Sade
The Marquis de Sade promoted the revolutionary idea of sexual freedom, which he expounded in his opuses. For these ideas and works, in 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte personally sent de Sade to the Charenton psychiatric hospital. But even there, the Marquis de Sade managed to write for another ten years, until he died.
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway suffered from alcohol addiction for most of his life. The writer also had other ailments - from bipolar psychosis and traumatic brain damage to narcissistic personality disorder. Relatives sent the writer to a psychiatric hospital, where he became even worse - he completely lost the ability to formulate thoughts. A week after being discharged, he shot himself with a shotgun.