"Men have called me crazy; but still not resolved the question whether or not madness is the highest form of intelligence, if much of the glorious, if all the profound, do not arise of a disease of thought, of moods exalted at the expense of the general intellect. Those who dream of day they know many things that escape those who dream only of night. In their gray visions they get glimpses of eternity and shudder, upon awakening, discovering that they have been on the brink of great secret." (Edgar Alan Poe)
The issue of relationship between artists or creative individuals and madness has always been of great interest and continues to be so. It has been observed over the years that creative people tend to have an unusually high number of mood disorders and mental illness, and despite extensive research, no definitive conclusion appears to have been reached to explain this relationship.
Definitions of the madness and creativity Art they are highly related, Since the locura (madness) , can be explained as: a certain behavior that does not adhere to what is established by social conventions or normality. It is the imbalance, the remoteness of reason, the journey of territories outside its limits, something unknown. La creativity supposes different ideas, originalit is constructive, divergent, exploring the new, the uncertain, what comes out of the established. But the similarity in terms of the definitions does not imply equivalence, it is important to highlight that there are great differences between these two concepts and many times the instruments or methods used to evaluate characteristics of individuals in both cases are the same, which can result in a link between madness and art due to only to the similarity between the instruments used.
The interest in the relationship between creativity and madness is not something new, as Aristoteles in his book: The man of genius and melancholy (problem XXX), related sadness and / or madness with genius, had a section in which he asked why exceptional men are so often melancholicUnderstanding melancholy as depression and mental imbalance, he said that the creative force is intimate with melancholy, sister of depression and daughter of mania, with this he meant that melancholy is the engine and top of the creative genius. But this does not mean that all great artistic geniuses suffer of some kind of madness, but some of them use it as a motor to create.
With a Artibutt published in the Journal of psychiatric research, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm in 2013 . A study was carried out with a Swedish population of more than one million people, using psychiatric diseases such as: equizoaffective disorder, depression, anxiety syndrome, alcohol and drug abuse, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD, anorexia nervosa and suicide. Certain similarities were also found, such as the fact that a large part of people with bipolar or schizophrenic disorders are in creative occupational areas. They claim that writers are the creatives most likely to suffer from mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, depression, anxiety and almost 50% more likely to commit suicide, in addition, photographers, dancers and researchers are more likely to suffer from bipolar disorder.
Another finding was that at the brain level, between the most creative people and schizophrenics, there is a certain similarity in a neurotransmitter called dopamine, which is a natural substance that our brain secretes and is responsible for giving us feelings of satisfaction and happiness. It was found that in these two groups there is a shortage of dopamine receptors, which can result in many unusual connections of ideas.
Despite what has been said in the previous article, it should not necessarily be concluded that being creative implies having a greater possibility of suffering from any of these diseases, but it could also be thought that suffering from any of these mental illnesses is more likely to be a creative, extravagant person, without inhibitions and without adherence to conventional rules.
Some famous artists who have suffered from mental illness have been:
-Edward munch, (1863-1944) He was a painter who spent a large part of his life with anxiety and hallucinations, he wrote in his diary “« My fear of life is necessary for me, as is my illness. They are indistinguishable from me and their destruction would destroy my art. "
-Vincent van Gogh, (1853-1890) This misunderstood artist suffered from bipolar disorder that was accompanied by hallucinations, visions, and psychomotor epilepsy. In a letter he wrote to his brother: "I have horrible attacks of anxiety, apparently for no reason, and other times a feeling of emptiness and fatigue in my head ... sometimes I have attacks of melancholy and excruciating remorse."
-Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 1849) English writer who suffered greatly due to having a problem with alcohol, was melancholic and depressed, suffered from bipolar disorder and his letters reveal that he struggled with suicidal thoughts
-Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) Composer, conductor and pianist, who had suicidal thoughts and is believed to have suffered from a bipolar disorder that he struggled with for much of his life.
-Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer and journalist, suffering from alcoholism and manic depression, committed suicide in 1961. There has been a long history of mental illness in his family.
-Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) Russian novelist whose works thoroughly explored human psychology, suffered from severe epilepsy, as well as depression. He also had a persistent fear of being buried alive.
-Vaslav Nijinsky (1890 - 1950) Russian choreographer and dancer whose career ended when his signs of schizophrenia became evident, he had paranoia and hallucinations, in his diary he wrote: «I want you to photograph my writings to explain my writings, because my writing is God's "Instead of printing them," because printing destroys writing. Writing is something beautiful, that is why it is necessary to fix it ». He spent his last decades of life confined in psychiatric institutions.
Neither normality completely excludes pathology, nor pathology is something constant, Aristotle's ideas of melancholy or madness as a creative force are not proven in all cases. The abnormality that occurs in a large part of artists can also occur in a large part of the ordinary population, but one of the differences is that the abnormality of artists receives special attention. It would be imprecise to say that all creatives are at risk for mental illness.
With this we cannot reject the relationship between madness and art, but the correlation does not imply causality, that is, the fact of madness and artistic force are related in many cases, it does not imply that one causes the other, nor that they depend on each other. Yes.
By: Dolores Ceñal Murga