Introduction
Often people have asked this question, do artists Have Mental illness? It is asked in those moments we watch a scary movie, read a really strange novel or see paintings hung up on the walls that just don’t make sense to some of us. Where do all these ideas come from? What is this? How can one normal mind come up with something like that? Well to be fair art is subjective and as the saying goes, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. So instead of questioning art’s very existence, we should all be thankful that it is there to do one thing and that is to entertain us as the audience.
The connection between creativity and mental illness has been a source of interest towards researchers and the like for years. It has often been studied that mental illnesses have a large impact on the sufferer’s creativity and how they express themselves in either a positive or negative way.
I am someone who likes to believe that there are different classifications of artists everywhere just the same as we have different forms of art. Therefore, while we may all think as individuals, we all come from diverse backgrounds and are all raised in unique traditions. It would therefore make sense that, our art would come out as an expression of all these things combined.
It is well known that forms of art can offer an evidence-based solution for promoting mental health. While practising the arts is not necessarily a solution for all mental health challenges, there is enough evidence to support prioritizing arts in our own lives at home as well as in our education systems as a contributor to mental wellbeing. Many therapists, for example, use forms of art therapy as a method of managing mental challenges such as autism, depression and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
The focus of today’s discussion is to explore mental illness within artistic expression. In other words, does having a mental illness and being creative have a connection? Is the connection positive or negative? Below are some results that show that the two may not have a connection at all but are different experiences altogether. Before we get into the discussion of impact mental illness might or might not have on artistic creativity, let us define what an artist is.
What is an Artist?
An artist is someone who produces creative works in the form of painting, photography, sculpture, drawing, performance, mixed media, literature or other art forms. They utilize their talents to create work in a way that is unique to them, using a personal creative process to complete their project. They may also focus on one specific medium or even combine multiple forms of art.
For example, a sculptor uses their hands, tools, or a wheel to mould clay into a work of art. Once the piece is dry, the sculptor may paint the piece before it is baked in a kiln. Sketch artists may use pencil, chalk, charcoal, or other writing materials to draw realistic or abstract images. Artists may create artwork for personal satisfaction or as a paid professional. Writers and journalists can tell a wide variety of stories ranging from articles, to short stories, to flash fiction, to novels, children’s literature and so much more.
Read – Mental Health for Creatives – Introduction to Mental Health by Mimi Machakaire – Zimbabwe
The Healing Power of the Arts
The arts have been known to contribute to one’s overall well-being. That feeling of being creative has come up in different ways and has shown some positive effects on many people, some who may not necessarily even be artists themselves. Examples of this can be found in mothers who like to decorate their family portraits with various objects, some like to partake in home-made crafts such as do-it-yourself projects, while others find joy in remodelling their homes, after years of having the same monotonous style within their surroundings.
Often people have turned to music as a source of healing. Musicians have the skill of not only being able to write lyrics and create musical notes to go with the lyrics but also find a connection to other musicians who have written songs that can inspire and motivate their audience. Music has the power to bring people together in a different way as many can relate to lyrics that are similar to what is happening in their lives and find meaning in those lyrics. This is the same for other forms of art such as painting, writing and more. Some people can also testify that words can express how they feel inside and once written down, their negative emotions somehow feel less intense than before.
There are many positive effects that the arts have had on many different personalities but the majority have been able to find a sense of calm and healing within their emotions through being creative.
Read – Mental Health for Writers – Elizabeth Akunyili – Nigeria
Managing Emotions Creatively
According to theconversation.com, the relationship between the arts and mental health is well established in the field of art therapy, which applies arts-based techniques (like painting, dancing and role play) as evidence-based interventions for mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression.
There is also growing evidence that the arts can be used in non-therapy contexts for promoting mental health, such as using performing arts to learn about the core subject areas in schools or doing visual art with adults who are mentally well and want to sustain that sense of wellness. In other words, practising the arts can be used to build capacity for managing one’s mental and emotional well-being.
While this has shown the effects of being creative on one’s overall well-being, whether the person is an artist or not; it still does not show any connection between mental illness and creativity. Does this mean artists do not experience any mental illness at all in their career?
Some artists have in the past talked about having a mental illness or give credit to the fact that mental illness is indeed a contributor to their art or how they express themselves. Although, others have had events in their life happen to them and then discovered that it was due to a mental illness they didn’t know existed until much later in their adult life. Below is a list of artists who have opened up about their mental illness:
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Adele
The Grammy-winning singer opened up about her postpartum depression in a 2016 Vanity Fair cover story when she explained why she was hesitant to have another child after welcoming son Angelo. “I’m too scared. I had really bad postpartum depression after I had my son, and it frightened me,” she said, noting that she did not take antidepressants.
“My knowledge of postpartum — or post-natal, as we call it in England — is that you don’t want to be with your child; you’re worried you might hurt your child; you’re worried you weren’t doing a good job. But I was obsessed with my child. I felt very inadequate; I felt like I’d made the worst decision of my life. … It can come in many different forms.”
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Kanye West
The rapper and entrepreneur discussed his mental health in a 2018 interview with another artist called Big Boi, revealing that he wasn’t diagnosed with a “mental condition” until age 39. “I’m so blessed and so privileged, because, think about people that have mental issues that are not Kanye West, that can’t go and make that [album] and make you feel like it’s all good,” he said at the time, adding, “It’s not a disability, it’s a superpower.”
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Ed Sheeran
“I have social anxiety. I hate large groups of people, which is ironic because I play shows for a living,” Sheeran told Charlamagne the God in a 2019 interview. “But I just feel claustrophobic and don’t like being around too many people.”
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Mariah Carey
“Until recently I lived in denial and isolation and in constant fear someone would expose me. It was too heavy a burden to carry and I simply couldn’t do that anymore. I sought and received treatment, I put positive people around me and I got back to doing what I love — writing songs and making music,” she revealed to People in 2018 about her bipolar disorder II diagnosis, noting that for a while, she thought she had a bad sleep disorder instead.
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Vincent van Gogh
At the age of 27, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh wrote in a letter to his brother Theo: “My only anxiety is, how can I be of use in the world?” Over the next 10 years, it seemed that van Gogh had gotten closer to finding an answer to that question. Through his art, he could leave a lasting impact on the world and find personal fulfilment in the process. Unfortunately, despite his enormous creativity during this period, he continued to suffer from what many have speculated to be bipolar disorder and epilepsy.
Van Gogh lived in Paris between the years 1886 to 1888. During that time, he documented “episodes of sudden terror, peculiar epigastric sensations, and lapses of consciousness” in letters. Especially during the last two years of his life, van Gogh experienced bouts of high energy and euphoria following bouts of periods of deep depression. In 1889, he voluntarily committed himself to a mental hospital in a Provence called Saint-Remy. While under psychiatric care, he created a stunning series of paintings.
Just 10 weeks after his discharge, the artist took his own life at the age of 37. He left behind an enormous legacy as one of the most creative and talented artistic minds of the 20th century. Despite a lack of recognition during his lifetime, van Gogh had more than enough to offer this world. One can only imagine what more he could have created if he had lived a longer life.
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J.K. Rowling
When the author of the runaway bestselling Harry Potter series was a struggling writer in her twenties — a single mother and newly divorced — she suffered from severe depression and contemplated suicide. She sought help through cognitive behavioural therapy, and after nine months, the suicidal thoughts disappeared.
“I have never been remotely ashamed of having been depressed,” she said in an interview on Suicide.org. “Never. What’s there to be ashamed of? I went through a really tough time and I am quite proud that I got out of that.” Today she doesn’t hesitate to talk about her depression in order to fight the stigma associated with mental illness.
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Mark Twain
Mark Twain’s brilliant authorship of American classics such as Huckleberry Finn might have had its roots in his tendency to depression. Nevertheless, this famous depressed writer also lived with a lot of family drama that could have contributed to his stress and depression.
“Depression’s role with creative writing will also be a function of the individual writers, their personal history, their circumstances, and the nature of their depressions,” said researcher J. Anderson Thomson Jr., MD, a staff psychiatrist at the University of Virginia Student Health Services and the university’s Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy.
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Stephen Edwin King
Stephen King is a modern master of suspense and terror. He has quite a body of work to his name. Yet, his fame and talent didn’t anticipate the devastating effects of the drugs and alcohol he allegedly had been using to cope with ongoing unhappiness.
Substance abuse and alcohol use, often play roles as people struggling with depression attempt to self-medicate. During those years, this famous depressed writer also produced some of his best-known works, such as The Shining, Pet Sematary, and Carrie.
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Ernest Hemingway
Depression, borderline and narcissistic personality traits, bipolar disorder and, later, psychosis were all combined to create Hemingway’s personal hell. Rather than turning to physicians or therapists for help, Hemingway used alcohol, engaged in risk-taking sportsmanship activities and wrote to cope. The author’s mental and physical health deteriorated so rapidly during the last years of his life — primarily due to alcoholism — that he finally accepted electroshock treatments in 1960.
A 2009 article published by the Association for Psychological Science revealed research that showed a definitive link between creativity and the neuregulin 1 gene, which is also closely associated with psychosis. Having hailed from a family with a long history of mental illness — among them, bipolar disorder, unexplored “nervous disorders,” depression and bulimia nervosa — suicide was not uncommon in the Hemingway bloodline and Ernest took his own life in 1961.
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Edgar Allen Poe
Edgar Allen Poe was famous for exposing the shadows of mankind with such gruesome tales as “The Tell-Tale Heart,”. His work parallels the demons he fought in his mind. His self-declared tendencies toward insanity textured his life with a worrying catchphrase similar to that which we find in his most famous poem, “The Raven.” After his wife’s death, Poe declared: “I am constitutionally sensitive—nervous in a very unusual degree. I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.”
In October 1849, found in a state of delirium on the streets of Baltimore, unable to articulate anything with much meaning or explain how he had ended up there, Poe died in a local hospital in the early hours of the next day.
It cannot be denied that several well-known creative people, mainly in the arts, have been mentally ill. However, the only thing that the information above has proven is that mental illness and the arts are not exactly connected in the way some people might think.
Artists can have mental illness and it can be a contributor to their artistic expression but one can be artistic without being diagnosed with any mental illness, just the same as one can have a mental illness without being an artist.
Conclusion
So while we can say that some artists have indeed opened up about having a mental illness or have been flat out diagnosed with a mental disorder, the way they express their art and their overall mental state may not have a connection at all. There are those who give credit to their mental illness and science can say that their mental illness is indeed a contributor to their artistic talents but the two are completely different experiences. It is not easy to tell which part of themselves is playing a major role in their lives but one thing for sure is that their artistic talents will forever be there.
According to observer.com, life can be difficult for artists as it is. Developing ideas and creating objects that they hope the larger public will appreciate and that some smaller group of people will be interested in paying them money for. Associating art making and mental instability presents an ad hominem attack on art, diagnosing artists as flawed individuals whose flaws give rise to their art. Hence, a strange portrait of the artist has arisen.
However, the fact remains is, anyone can have a mental illness but not everyone can be artistic.
Sources
http://airshipdaily.com/blog/022620145-writers-mental-illness
https://theconversation.com/brain-research-shows-the-arts-promote-mental-health-136668
https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/9367924/musicians-mental-health-struggles
https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/06/05/van-gogh-and-mental-illness/
https://psychcentral.com/blog/10-famous-people-with-depression-bipolar-disorder-or-both/
https://www.everydayhealth.com/depression-pictures/famous-writers-with-depression.aspx
Mimi Machakaire is a Zimbabwean with a Diploma in Film Production from the University of Zimbabwe and a Diploma in journalism from Rutherford Hayes University, in the United States of America. She has a great passion for writing, journalism and storytelling. She currently resides in Maseru city, Lesotho.
Quite enlightening