Myth of a Mad Artist
There's a pervasive idea, I'd even go as far as calling it a myth, that some form of madness almost always haunts creative types.
I recently posted a piece featuring William Blake, and I was going to move away from doing posts about the connection between creativity and some forms of mental illness. Still, it seems this recurring theme keeps resurfacing. Also, it's May as I write this, which is Mental Health Awareness Month, established in 1949.
Once more, I recognize that I've previously addressed this question—is there a link between creativity and mental illness?—but I revisit it because it requires an answer. The correlation between the two has been seen so much in our culture that illness is viewed as a prerequisite to inventiveness.
While listening to a YouTube documentary about Virginia Woolf, the idea struck me once more, accompanied by a warning: causation is not the same as correlation.
Virginia Woolf, who passed away just eight years before the inception of mental health awareness in May, took her own life by putting a heavy stone in her coat pocket and walking into the river Ouse, after writing a farewell letter to her husband, Leonard.
She had suffered from illness throughout her life, having experienced several breakdowns. Even so, she proved herself to be a great writer, composing the essay, A Room of One's Own, which greatly contributed to the feminist movement.
Many ideas abound regarding Woolf's mental health. At the age of thirteen, she suffered severe mood swings after the death of her mother. Her half-sister Stella Duckworth helped her through this time. But when Stella died two years later, Virginia stated her 'wish for death' for the first time. The death of her father was said to be her most devastating loss.
Despite her struggles, her legacy continues to endure to this day.
Additionally, there's the case of Vincent van Gogh, whom I've mentioned previously. It's widely recognized that Van Gogh experienced mental illness, which might have influenced his artistic perspective on the world.
Norwegian painter Edvard Munch certainly believed that his illness influenced his art. He is attributed with having said:
"Art comes from joy and pain... But mostly from pain."
Although his contemporaries called him mad, he viewed 'madness' as a necessary ingredient to his work. He also stated, "Without anxiety and illness, I am a ship without a rudder."
Among the four creatives I discuss here, Edgar Allan Poe's situation is perhaps the most peculiar. He passed away under mysterious conditions on October 7, 1849, at the age of 40. It is believed he suffered from various issues, including alcoholism, "congestion of the brain," carbon monoxide poisoning, rabies, and cooping (I had to look that last one up). Similar to Woolf, Poe faced challenging experiences early in life that might have shaped his perspective. The author of gothic stories like The Raven and The Cask of Amontillado was born to actors David and Eliza Poe in 1809. His father eventually left the family, and his mother Eliza, passed away a year later, leaving him orphaned at the age of two.
He was taken in by John Allan's family, with whom he had a challenging relationship. Some sources suggest that Poe drank heavily, struggled with gambling addiction, and experienced periods of despair.
He was found semiconscious in the streets of Baltimore in 1849, and according to the attending physician, his last words were "Lord help my poor soul".
Regardless of what these four creatives went through in their lives, it's essential to recognize that society often romanticizes the link between creativity and suffering, implying that pain is the primary or most powerful source of creative inspiration, which is not the case.
I've had my own struggles through the years; sometimes they serve as inspiration, often they hinder me. But either way, I find that the creative impulse remains a constant. I'll bet that's been true for the others as well. This has been a heavy topic to digest this month. I'll be back with lighter fare next time-'Eye' promise.
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