Manic Depression and Creativity

by D. Jablow Hershman and Julian Lieb M.D.

Book Overview

Many recognized geniuses had creative capacities that were driven by bouts of manic intensity followed by the depths of mind-numbing despair. From Plato, who originated the idea of inspired mania, to Beethoven, Dickens, Newton, Van Gogh, and today's popular creative artists and scientists who've battled manic depression, this intriguing work examines creativity and madness in mystery, myth, and history. Demonstrating how manic depression often becomes...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1573922412
• ISBN13: 9781573922418
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 236 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Excellent combination of history and clinical review

I really enjoyed this book, and it definitely reinforced the "gifted" spin on my bipolar diagnosis, although I realize it doesn't make us all Beethovens and Van Goghs. The vivid picture painted in the life cycles of these brilliant artists is both informative and compelling. The only case in which I remained unconvinced of the diagnosis was Newton. I'd love to be in his company, but I just didn't see the same behavioral patterns as were evident in the artists covered. I will recommend this book to anyone who has been recently diagnosed as bipolar. I think it will help. The review that suggested the book was lacking in tact left me scratching my head. On the contrary: I found the accounts quite sensitive.

Very Satisfied

The book came quickly and was in the condition I expected it to be. Very pleased.

Good Biographical Conjecture

This book is an essential building block in understanding artistic temperment and the fomentation of (recognized) genius. The authors have eschewed egalitarian premises and psychoanalytical posturing to bring the reader as unbiased a viewpoint as possible while still offering correlations between typical mood affectivity and the amusing/confusing personalities of these four luminaries. After reading this book, my interest in the subjects -- of these specific historical characters and of the psychiatric relationship of genius to mood disorder -- was most assuredly heightened. I'd qualify this book as appropriate for any level of scholarship. It's entertaining, informative and contains some profoundly original thoughts, which are always a pleasure to encounter. My one great criticism of the book is based on the Dr.'s wholesale endorsement of psychotropic drug therapy which I find to be a little professionally self-serving and irresponsible coming from a profession mired in misdiagnoses that labors under gross inaccuracies proliferated at the academic publish-or-perish research journal level and, in their compounded professional ignorance, they rely on patently dangerous drug-based therapies as all-encompassing Panaceas, which they are not.

Good Biographical Conjecture

This book is an essential building block in understanding artistic temperment and the fomentation of (recognized) genius. The authors have eschewed egalitarian premises and psychoanalytical posturing to bring the reader as unbiased a viewpoint as possible while still offering correlations between typical mood affectivity and the amusing/confusing personalities of these four luminaries. After reading this book, my interest in the subjects, both of these specific historical characters and of the psychiatric relationship of genius to mood disorder, was most assuredly heightened. I'd qualify this book as appropriate for any level of scholarship. It's entertaining, informative and contains some profoundly original thoughts, which is always a pleasure to encounter. My one great criticism of the book is based on the Dr.'s wholesale endorsement of psychotropic drug therapy which I find to be a little professionally self-serving coming from a profession mired in misdiagnoses that labors under gross inaccuracies at the academic research publish-or-perish journal level and, in their compounded professional ignorance, they rely on patently dangerous drug-based therapies as all-encompassing Panaceas, which they are not.

Rename

I read this book as a hard cover when it was aptly named The Key to Genius Manic Depression and the Creative Life. I found it very informative and well written in layman's terms. In the end one learns that nothing comes easy and with out a price even for the best of them. Hershman delivers them as artists and Lieb dissects them as a scientist. I did earn this, genius is a funny thing. In the beginning you think it's crazy as time passes and evolution sets in, you realize that we just did not have the ability to comprehend at the time. As the Cliche goes "genius is never realized in its own time". For those who have delusions of how great it would be to be a genius be prepared to be disillusioned. You feel for these people and the suffering they had endured to bring us their work that we so love. It leaves one humbled. All in all "WOW" an enlightening read.