A Brilliant Madness

by compound complex 9 Replies latest jw friends

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  compound complex

  Greetings!

  I'm rereading A BRILLIANT MADNESS: LIVING WITH MANIC-DEPRESSIVE ILLNESS by Patty Duke and Gloria Hochman.

  Do you have any personal or anecdotal information on links between mania and creativity?

  Thank you,

  CoCo Cyclothyme
• 

  Akira

  I read the book (out of curiosity) and enjoyed it a lot. She's really an outstanding person.
• 

  changeling

  Ask oompa.

  changeling :)
• 

  compound complex

  Thank you.

  CoCo
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  Twitch

  Haven't read the book but it sounds interesting.

  Some of the most creative people I've known were half mad, IMO. Some are just visiting our planet and I must say I enjoy the show.

  However, I don't think it's an exclusive correlation. Some are able to use a mind that operates outside the box in creative fashion and with vision & purpose. Others not so much.

  Some of the most "creative" music I've made was during periods of extreme agitation though. "A poet needs the pain" as it were.
• 

  DNCall

  I heard that Handel composed The Messiah in three weeks during a fit of mania.

  I also knew a former circuit overseer who always struggled to earn a living after going off the road. His bipolar condition manifested itself late in life. During an extreme fit of mania, he raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for a foundation that existed only in his mind.

  DNCall
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  compound complex

  Thank you, Twitch and DN:

  Not all madness or mania is linked with creativity, but both your points regarding Handel and the "poet's suffering" are mentioned in the book.

  Thanks,

  CoCo
• 

  chickpea

  a woman whom i first encountered
  as the campus minister at the small
  liberal arts college i attended was
  indeed bipolar (manic-depresive)
  and one of the most brilliantly creative
  individuals i have met, before or since......
  artistically talented, musically accopmplished,
  a soprano vocal range that could make angels weep,
  and a grasp on spirituality that was captivating

  tragically wounded, the epitome of
  the brilliant light that comes from
  burning a candle at both ends.....
  and the devastation that lay beyond

  just being a witness to her life,
  it was exhausting to be in her manic cycle
  and terrifying to be in the depressive alternate.....
• 

  VoidEater

  My dad is intellectually superior, highly abstract, obsessively detail oriented, and bipolar. He has contributed to the development of some of the earliest laser printers (IBM's Argonaut, that filled a large closet) and refined MRI hardware in its latest generation.

  He's also very hard to be around, a perfectionist, with an obsessive need to control.

  I'm not bipolar, just clinically depressed without the mania. I've created a lot of music (composing, arranging, recording, performing), written a couple books, acted on stage and in film, had poetry and photography published in niche markets.

  Both a kind of creativity and mental issues to some degree run through the lives of much of my family on my father's side (visual arts, literary interests, along with slavish devotion to a cult and suicide). What can I do but carry on the tradition? ;-)

  EDIT: PS - will have to pick up the book...it's one that has escaped my attention.
• 

  compound complex

  Thank you, Chick and Void:

  Your posts are both illuminating and poignant.

  The Book - A BRILLIANT MADNESS - alternates between Ms. Duke's candid portrayal of her personal hell (and that which she unwittingly visited upon her bewildered family) and medical reporter Ms. Hochman's detailed but captivating description of the illness.

  
  Illness or Eccentricity?

  More to follow ...

  CoCo