Are the crazy ones truly talented?

Before I begin, I admit this is a topic that has piqued my curiousity for a while. This may also cause offence to some people, and I apologize if it does cause offend you.

If there is one thing I have noticed, it is that many of the best musicians, writers and artists had some type of a--how should I say this--some type of problem or mental complication. Many of the best of all time were either mentally unstable, gay, alcholics, eating disordered, drug addicts, or something to this effect. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, Modest Mussorgsky, Robert Schumann, Ludwig van Beethoven, The Beatles, Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Edgar Allan Poe, and Carrie Fisher are a few examples of this. What I want to know is why this is and does it affect the artist in ways that trigger their talent and creativity. Artists, writers, and other creative people often have their own issues. Why is this?

The term or label "crazy ones" was used loosely in this title and question as others often percieve them as such. In this case, I felt this was appropriate to use so an association may be made with the creative output and whatever the condition of the person was.

 

Hmm, the drug addicts/alcoholics I wouldn't really call "crazy". They're escapists if you ask me, I can completly relate to that sort of thing and I'm not crazy (of course, I'd like to think of myself as some sort of artist...).

They do drugs because they want to escape the from the "ordinary" life style that many people have, escape from the drag, which also gives them their inspiration, not because they're mentally unstable.

I don't know if that made any sense..

 

Abraham Lincoln had bits with depression

 

The answer is "yes".

Artistic ability and depression/manic depression have been linked. For more on that, try reading Dr. Kay Jamison's Touched by Fire.

There's often a high price to pay for remarkable talent. Alcoholism and other addictions are also common in those with a great deal of talent or accomplishments.

 

Almost every gifted person has had problems.

Albert Einstein
Winston Churchill
Abraham Lincoln
Mozart




The list really goes on and on and on
I just don't have time to make such a large list of famous individuals.

 

I found this online about this topic :
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro99/web2/Gosselink.html

Many artists consider drugs or alcohol as helping them focus and release inhibitions. There can be something said about mind-altering substances opening up new avenues of the mind to varying degrees.

Personally, I think any genius is slightly "off" to put it lightly. Comes with the territory it seems. Maybe it is because of how their minds function that it seems strange, bizzare, insane to us "normal" folk. Or maybe the very force that enables them to create so powerfully is what makes them also become insane or crazy.

Also intense emotion often illicits an intense reaction in people, look at poets like Sylvia Plath. She killed herself eventually, tried many times, but was probably one of the best poets of the 20th century. Then you have the flip side, ppl like Hemingway, who also killed himself, but was know for womanizing and acting like a "man's man". He is considered a great writer by many. I think his short story "A clean, well-lighted place" is one of the better short stories out there.

 

Not so much insanity as people who are outsiders?

People who because of this feel the world is against them or or must prove themselves to themselves and others?

 

There's also many successful artists who are mentally stable (I hope that's a good way of putting it). However, I agree that the proportion seems to to be smaller. I wonder if any historians/biographers/psychologists have done an in depth study on the suject?

I think that to be so creative usually requires that one's mind function uniquely. So most artist have strangw minds as compared to the general population. Uniqueness/strangeness is in turn labelled mental illness when it begins to interfere with normal functioning. It's not surprising that many artists are 'crazy'.

Also, the success brought on because of artistic ability might cause problems. Think of child actors who might have led stable lives had their childhood been different. Or just any celebrity who gets a lot of attention and money. Mozart's problems could be due to being paraded around as a little genius when he was merely 6 years old.

 

i think in general , everyone has probloms. Its just the famouse people's probloms are more interesting to us. I know a lot of depressed drugy losers that are not talented. They are lazy. I don't think it would be a trait connected with "probloms"

there are tons of great people with no probloms. Spielberg, lucas, tolkien, Stephen king, Heinland to name a few i guess. Yes they all have there own probloms but you know...

 

That's true. Maybe it just seems that artists have more problems because they're given more attention and focus.

It still seems though that the proportion of 'crazy' artists is greater than the proportion in the regular population. Or maybe it's just an illusion...

 

Everyone has problems of some sort, it's just how you decide to solve that problem. I think because talented people are in the "limelight" that that their issues are magnified into enlarged and exagerated proportions.