Writing and Neurosis

[42]

So one of the panels I walked into at MileHiCon was about mental illness and art. The panel had like ten panel members and the room was full.

All of the panel members suffered from depression or some sort of mental illness. All also were successful writers or artists working full-time.

So the panel's conclusion about mental illness and writing--if you don't have a mental illness than your writing must be subpar at best. Also if you are happy, then your writing is lacking.

I left the discussion early because I thought it wasn't worth listening to their whining.

So what is everyone's ideas on this?

[stacer]

I think there are many great artists who are mentally ill. And I think there are many great artists who had happy, stable home lives, never felt depressed a day in their lives, and generally just have a good life. And many mediocre and very bad artists who are either mentally ill or not.

And then there are the mentally ill who would be good artists if they didn't give in to their mental illness completely. I know one particular person in my life, a schitzophrenic, who has done that. She stopped drawing about 15 years ago because it made her "nervous." Then she gave up sewing (she's an excellent seamstress). Then she gave up any books that weren't written by General Authorities. Now she barely ever leaves the house, and wonders why her voices are always so strong. She doesn't have anything else in her life to distract her, I think.

I'm not trivializing her struggle *at all*. She's had a hard life, and it's a hard thing to deal with. But continuing with something she loves *is* therapeutic.

That's off topic, I suppose.

At any rate, mental illness is just another factor. It can really help with creativity ("what are the voices in my head saying today?"), or it can really hinder it (clinically depressed who can't meet a deadline because they sleep all day). Or it can be in the middle--sometimes a challenge, sometimes a blessing.

[fuzzyoctopus]

So the panel's conclusion about mental illness and writing--if you don't have a mental illness than your writing must be subpar at best. Also if you are happy, then your writing is lacking.

I think they're wrong.  It's not that you have to be mentally ill to be a writer, it's just that the type of person that *is* a writer often happens to be the person who has a mental illness.

You don't *have* to be moody to be an artist, it just happens that a lot of them are.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

coincidentally, I've been listening to lectures on "Using Literature to Understand the Human Side of Medicine" this week, and today's lectures were on madness and addiction.

among many other things, he pointed out that while we have awfully romantic notions of insanity today (like these panelists), the historical view of madness was a brutish and ugly thing. And when you get down to talking with people who have mental illnesses or observing them, you can see that more often than not it is quite hideous and painful. writing and art done in the throes of hallucination or incoherance caused by drugs or mental illness are, more often than not, incoherant, senseless, and crude.

Obviously, I'm speaking in generalities. There are several pointed examples to the contrary of my argument.

However, I don't think that mental disorder is a blessing for those reasons. It can occassionally help, but is less likely too.

[stacer]

Yeah, "blessing" is too positive a word, and that's not really how I meant it. I guess the best way of saying it is that it can be a challenge that you're up to, or that you're not up to.

[42]

See, I can see that becoming a writer, a musician, or an artist could attract people predisposed to mental illness. I can also see that it is possible to develop some mental illnesses from being actively involved in an artistic profession. I would like to think that there are  well-adjusted, level-headed, sane people working in the arts.

Somehow mental illness and the artistic fields are connected. I think it's not something that is addressed enough, but I also don't think that mental illness is by anyways a requirement to enter an artistic profession.

I felt this panel I attended was missing all the therapists of the panel members being in attendance to tell them to stop over-exagerating things. Yes, some aspects of mental illness may help one become a better writer or what-not, but it doesn't mean that person has to be miserable his or her entire life.

[Mistress of Darkness]

I wonder if it has something to do with the introspective nature of art versus, say, a career in management.

However, I think I must agree with 42. Those panelists were overexaggerating.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

can you under exaggerate something?

[Mistress of Darkness]

Isn't that an understatement?

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

no, it's more like on over understatement.


I love making fun of redundant reptition