ARE WRITERS AND CREATIVE GENIUSES CRAZY?

THE CONCEPT OF THE CRAZY GENIUS OR CREATIVE GENIUS HAS BEEN AROUND FOR CENTURIES

There’s a creative force artist’s display through their art that makes them a little “different.” Or maybe not through their art but through the things they do as humans who create art. George Orwell was quoted as saying about writing: “One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.” The German philosopher and writer, Friedrich Nietzsche, said, "You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.” And here’s a quote (often misattributed to Steven Jobs) by the creative advertising team at TBWA\Chiat\Day (a competitor of mine when I was in the ad agency) for Apple’s “Think Different” campaign: “Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers... Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” The commercial was voiced by the actor Richard Dreyfuss, of JAWS, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and American Graffiti fame. The great Philip K. Dick, author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Ubik, The Minority Report and Other Classic Stories, wrote about altered realities and the mental struggles he fought throughout his life. But is there a correlation between creativity and madness?

When I first started writing, I was sixteen years old. No one told me to write. No one, as far as I can remember, then or prior, other than my mother, read books. Books were these things she introduced me to, but by no means did she tell me I had to write one. They were just sort of . . . there. Most of my friends, growing up and into my twenties, didn’t read books. Truth be told, most of my friends still don’t. To them, they’re just sort of these cutesy things I dabble in that have nothing to do with “the real world.” Well, I tell you, I’ve been and worked in the real world and I want nothing to do with it. The real world for me is in writing and creating books. It’s not selling website builds or providing marketing services. It’s not about working at a bank making money for myself and other people. And it’s not about creating and/or improving products to sell to the general public or the government. I’ve done all of those jobs. I’ve hated every single one of them. To be clear: I don’t believe I’m a creative genius. Not at all. I believe I’m nothing more than a persistent writer who knows the steps to writing a book and never stop until I get them to where I believe I can no longer continue on my own. And when I’m there, I bring my writer friends in to tell me what works and what doesn’t. They’re serious writers. I don’t know if they’re “crazy.”

ARE WRITERS AND CREATIVE GENIUSES CRAZY?

That said, throughout history, artist’s have been considered “eccentric.” They have been labeled geniuses (the ones who’ve “made” it, anyway), and many of them had specific practices they employed while writing that may, to nonwriters and non-artists, not make sense. Or at least seem a little odd. James Joyce wrote in crayon. But that didn’t make him crazy. He wrote in crayon because he was going blind and writing in large print allowed him to see what he was writing. Finnegan’s Wake was written partially using crayon. The Beat author William Burroughs, who wrote Junkie and Naked Lunch, was a lifelong heroine addict. Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road while on amphetamines and was an alcoholic (he died of cirrhosis of the liver and an abdominal hemorrhage). I’m not sure that made him a crazy genius, but it fueled his ability to write for long periods of time (he wrote One the Road, supposedly, in 3 weeks). Ernest Hemingway battled depression. He was also an alcoholic.

Sylvia Plath had clinical depression and committed suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning. She may have had bipolar disorder. And Edvard Munch, the artist who created the famous “The Scream,” a piece of art he created four times (two in pastel and two in paint) so prevalent in postcards, posters, refrigerator magnets and even action figures, suffered from intense personal anxiety, deep depression, and even had a mental breakdown. For me, the question is akin to the chicken and egg: which came first? The mental instability and creative genius, or the art that made them “crazy” or “eccentric” or whatever it is that other “normal” people found strange.

One of the most famous artists ever, the painter Vincent van Gogh, suffered from anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. He’s quoted as saying, “I put my heart and my soul into my work and lost my mind in the process.” During a mental breakdown, and after an argument with Paul Gauguin, an artist of multiple mediums, van Gogh famously cut his left ear off. He gave the ear to a young woman at a local brothel (another theory is that Gauguin accidentally cut it off). On July 29, 1890, suffering from mental illness, a sense of failure, and financial and personal issues, he shot himself dead. While there is a pattern of mental illness in these writers and artists, there are plenty of them that seem to suffer from no maladies whatsoever. Or at least none deemed “crazy.” Or not “too” crazy.

VINCENT VAN GOGH, THE GREAT PAINTER, CUT HIS EAR OFF AFTER AN ARGUMENT

Quirky Practices by Writers & Artists

Victor Hugo wrote naked.

Truman Capote wrote in bed. He said he couldn’t write unless he was lying down in a bed or couch. During a Paris Review interview, he said he was a “horizontal writer.” As a side note, he died of liver disease (he drank heavily and used drugs all his life).

Igor Stravinksy, the great Russian composer and conductor, stood on his head to clear his thoughts.

While these are habits people might find curious, they don’t necessarily make these artists “crazy.” Eccentric, sure. But not crazy.

But the depression I feel, however deeply or moderately, I view as insight into the human condition that I then translate into my work.

My contention is that these writers and artists simply “saw” things differently and so expressed things differently. This isn’t anything new, as there have been plenty of studies done by psychiatrists and psychologists to explain why, or at least study, the mental health issues of certain artists. American clinical psychologist (and professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins) Kay Redfield Jamison studied mood disorders, in particular how bipolar disorder often led to artistic and creative output. Free Press published his book Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament (1993). Arnold Ludwig, an American psychiatrist conducted studies on achievement and pathology. His research led him to write a book called The Price of Greatness (1995), which studied the rates of mental illness of over a thousand well-known writers, composers, and visual artists. Clearly, there’s something to the idea, to the concept, that creative geniuses, again not all of them but a great many, create art, and perhaps “good” art (and mathematical computations, etc.), because of a different way of seeing and perceiving things and then putting their thoughts down on paper, or through any of a multitude of  different media.

As someone with bipolar disorder II, including depression (I don’t really get manic, as many bipolar people do), I’m not sure if my diagnosis is the driver of my need to express myself through my writing or if it’s the other way around). In all honesty, I don’t believe it’s the former. Again, I do not consider myself a creative genius. I do, however, believe that my subject matter is influenced greatly by what I suffer through mentally. Bipolar disorder, according to the Google, is characterized by an “intense low mood lasting two weeks or more, marked by low energy, hopelessness, loss of interest in daily activities, and trouble sleeping. In Bipolar II, people typically spend much more time in depressive states than hypomanic ones.”

I do not consider myself a creative genius. I do, however, believe that my subject matter is influenced greatly by what I suffer through mentally.

I’ve never experienced the hypomanic part of the illness, as far as I know. I have, however, experienced everything else listed as what you go through when you have Bipolar II. It’s a tough time, going through those things. Real tough. I won’t get into the details, but let’s just say the world didn’t seem like such a great place to be in, and that lasted for a long time. Luckily, I knew what was happening. Logically, because I was diagnosed and experienced the heaviest impact of the diagnosis later in life. In my youth, I ran with the “he’s an artist so he has to act crazy” bullshit. I’m glad it didn’t go too far. Whether or not I was bipolar at the time is a mystery to me. I did, however, have pretty good depression. And I began writing seriously at that time. I didn’t think I was ill; on the contrary, I just wrote it off (no pun intended) as the feelings writers are born with that cause them to seek an outlet for those feelings. Writing was mine.

MENTAL ILLNESS IS A SERIOUS ISSUE. IF YOU'RE SUFFERING FROM DEPRESSION, SEEK HELP NOW.

So, back to my question: are writers and creative geniuses crazy? The truth is this: I don’t know. Do we all suffer from depression? I have no clue. But my best friend, a filmmaker, seems to be afflicted with a lot of the things that affect my well-being, but also his well-being, including his passion and desire to be productive in his own field. Our friends and family apparently are aware, are cognizant of how we feel, and of the ups and downs we go through, ups and downs much more prevalent in our lives than in those of other people in their (and our) spheres. The other day, my friend told me about a family member who called him concerned that he might react badly to a loss he suffered. He had to convince that family member that he was okay, that he would not harm himself. Recently, I lost a good friend. It seems I’ve lost several good friends in the last few years. I’ve been told I react a little distant, or perhaps indifferent (I can’t remember which word was used) to their deaths. I know that’s not the case. For me, I internalize those feelings. And then I write about them. Not in that I’m writing their biography or taking their circumstances and translating them word for word in my fiction. I never do that. Or almost never. But the depression I feel, however deeply or moderately, I view as insight into the human condition that I then translate into my work. I have no answer as to whether that’s a good thing or a harmful one. My friend, a fantastic writer and educator, says this: “We write fiction to make sense of the things we don’t understand.” My depression and anxiety and whatever else I suffer from becomes my fiction. Always. Does that mean I’m “crazy”? A “genius”? I hope not. Sometimes “normal” is the only thing I strive for. It’s a lot less painful. But I’ll always write. I will always write.

*If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, free, confidential support is available 24/7. Call or text 988 to reach the ⁠988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with the Crisis Text Line.

Cully Perlman is an author, editor, and a human being going around this thing we call earth. He can be contacted at Cully@novelmasterclass.com 

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