|  | Conditions Treatments | Depression

Creativity & Depression

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), approximately 21 million Americans 18 and older have mild depression, major depression or manic depression. Although creativity has been linked to general mood disorders, it is mostly associated with manic depression.

 Manic depressive illness, more recently known as bipolar disorder, is a mental health disorder that affects approximately 5.7 million adult Americans, according to the NIMH.

  1. Symptoms

    • The symptoms of manic depression alternate between feelings of mania and depression. Mania often exhibits itself in feelings of being "high" or in extreme exuberance and euphoria, which results in periods of restlessness, insomnia, and risky behavior. Depression often exhibits itself with episodes of sadness, emptiness and lethargy.

    Genius and Madness

    • Recently, the relationship between manic depressive illness and creativity has been receiving attention through contemporary studies.

 The best-known research into the connection between manic depressive illness and creativity was done by Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University. 

In her book "Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament," Jamison argues that there is a connection between manic depression and creativity. She profiles creative historical figures who have displayed symptoms of the disorder, including poets, painters, musicians, sculptors, composers and writers.

    Suicide and Poets

    • There are, of course, many creative people who do not have manic depressive illness. There are also many men and women who have the disorder and are not especially creative. But one statistic implies there may be connection. Lauren Stokes of "The (Swarthmore College) Daily Gazette" writes that within the general population, only 1 percent commit suicide. She compares this to Jamison's findings of statistics showing up to 18 percent of poets will commit suicide, suggesting manic depression is more common among these creative writers than among the general population.

    Painter Vincent Van Gogh

    • Vincent van Gogh, a painter born in Holland, showed clear symptoms of the disorder during his lifetime, according to Jamison. In the infamous story of the troubled artist, van Gogh attacked his friend and fellow artist Paul Gauguin with a razor before turning on himself, cutting off a piece of his earlobe. A few years later, the artist shot himself.

      Jamison writes that van Gogh's "cyclic pattern of affective episodes, lucidity between attacks . . . bursts of productivity, altered sleep and energy patterns" and other documented symptoms were all features of manic depression. His most famous painting, "Starry Night" (1889) was completed while he was in an asylum.

    Writer Virginia Woolf

    • According to a biography of writer and feminist Virginia Woolf, by Jessica Svendsen and Pericles Lewis of Yale University, Woolf wrote several works of fiction before her suicide at 59. Prior to her death, Woolf had already attempted suicide and had been institutionalized. Biographer Hermione Lee notes that the symptoms of mental illness Woolf had exhibited throughout her life were aligned with symptoms of manic depression.

Depression - Related Articles