Is there a connection between mental illness and artists?

Question

Many(of course not all) have had some sort of mental illness....drugs,alcohol,depression,or all out madness.

Is that just one of life's little ironies...that the ones that can evoke such strong emotion,feelings, thoughts or what ever are also the ones living in chaos,despair and generally(not always) die an early or tragic death..or both?

Answer 1

I think artists perhaps go this way because they are not as emotionally numb as the general populace. With the creative spirit alive and well in them unencumbered by the mental conditioning of the masses I would imagine they can get very lonely. No one understands. No one seems to see what they see. We the general population see them as insane because we can't understand. We can't percieive as they do and so call them crazy. It is the collective mentality that labels them as insane. What if the collective were really the insane ones? How lonely would it be to be one of a very select few who actually are sane and than to feel the reality of this notion due to emotional perception that feels for the rest of us? Even the beauty of their art is a message no one really seems to understand.

Answer 2

The list of great artists who might have suffered from some sort of mental illness is almost endless: Edgar Allan Poe, William Blake, Lord Byron, Sylvia Plath, Georgia O'Keeffe and Virginia Woolf are only the tip of the iceberg. Maybe I'll be on that list oneday.

Answer 3

I think there is definitely a correlation between mental illness and philosophy students.

Answer 4

in art, you see a kind of beauty in which only a human can see.. each person sees something different as ''beautfiful''