I don't know much about Dave's background or experiences so I'm purely responding to this image. To me, it embodies a certain romanticisation of mental illness. Mania + Depression = Creativity?
Well, maybe. But sometimes mania + depression = higher suicide risk. A mixed state (or dysphoric mania) is a very dangerous state to be in. If you're depressed then you may not want to live but frankly suicide is too active an option. Dysphoric mania unfortunately gives you the energy just at the time that it can most do you harm.
Do these results imply that creativity and psychopathology are intimately connected? Are genius and madness tantamount to the same thing? The answer to the first question is affirmative, but the response to the second is negative. DK Simonton
There is evidence of a link between mental illness and creativity but there are some issues here:
- In linking creativity to mental illness, we mystify the creative, we make it alien to ourselves. Creativity is for those wacky, crazy people - not for us, no siree. We're normal.
- It seems as though we cannot handle mental illness unless we demonise or romanticise it. Monsters or heroes please.
- Many people with mental illness are no more geniuses than the rest of us. What happens to them? Where do they fit in?
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