Study of manic depression and inspiration that for many will be a
hard read but that makes its points convincingly - if only
fragmentarily - chapter by chapter. The relation between madness
and genius is a fascinating subject, and Jamison (Psychiatry/Johns
Hopkins University School of Medicine) has a rich lode of firsthand
observers to quote from: Byron, Coleridge, van Gogh, Robert Lowell,
John Berryman, Sylvia Plath, Theodore Roethke, Virginia Woolf, and
many more, all of whom offer spellbinding words about their bouts
with manic depression (paranoia and schizophrenia aren't covered).
The basic argument here is "not that all writers and artists are
depressed, suicidal, or manic. It is, rather, that a greatly
disproportionate number of them are; that the manic-depressive and
artistic temperaments are, in many ways, overlapping ones; and that
the two temperaments are causally related to one another."
Genealogical studies of famed manic depressives show a definite
genetic linkage, which is complemented by a seasonal one: Jamison
includes seasonal tables of mood disorders, fluctuating
productivity ("winter depression...summer hypomanias"), and peak
times for suicide. Lithium and newer drugs, she explains, often
dampen creative highs while relieving victims of turmoil and
suicidal lows, but calm periods at optimum serum blood levels may
allow longer, more productive periods of creativity. Some
sufferers, however, choose to go with the lows for the rewards of
the hypomanic state when it returns (hypomania is a middling state
that gives a rich lift before the hyperactivity of mania or the
colossal bleakness of melancholia). Jamison also finds a high
incidence of manic depression among substance abusers, although she
doesn't study the incidence of illness among abstinent drinkers or
drug-abusers. Clear writing and research, but heavily clinical.
(Kirkus Reviews)
The definitive work on the profound and surprising links between
manic-depression and creativity, from the bestselling psychologist
of bipolar disorders who wrote "An Unquiet Mind."
One of the foremost psychologists in America, "Kay Jamison is
plainly among the few who have a profound understanding of the
relationship that exists between art and madness" (William Styron).
The anguished and volatile intensity associated with the artistic
temperament was once thought to be a symptom of genius or
eccentricity peculiar to artists, writers, and musicians. Her work,
based on her study as a clinical psychologist and researcher in
mood disorders, reveals that many artists subject to exalted highs
and despairing lows were in fact engaged in a struggle with
clinically identifiable manic-depressive illness.
Jamison presents proof of the biological foundations of this
disease and applies what is known about the illness to the lives
and works of some of the world's greatest artists including Lord
Byron, Vincent Van Gogh, and Virginia Woolf.
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